It started with a malfunctioning brake light. The Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy on patrol Thursday on County Road 305 noticed it on a Dodge Ram pickup towing a trailer. The deputy pulled the driver over. It was Christopher E. Raymond, 33, of 7 Burma Place in Palm Coast, who’d spent 10 of the last 15 years in prison.
The background check revealed Raymond to be a registered sex offender and a felon many times over: he was found guilty in 2004 of possessing child pornography, grand theft, burglary and a few other charges, and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was released in January 2010, and re-imprisoned for five years that November after another burglary conviction. He was released in December 2016.
The malfunctioning brake light was the least of it. The deputy had summoned a drug-sniffing canine, who promptly alerted his handler of the possible presence of narcotics in the vehicle. A probable cause search did produce a “digital scale with a crystal like residue on it,” which allegedly tested positive for methamphetamines, along with alleged methamphetamine in a hollowed out plastic pen and methamphetamine found in Raymond’s wallet, according to Raymond’s arrest report. But it was the weapons that stood out.
The search produced a bolt action .22 caliber rifle with a scope that had been hidden beneath various items on the rear passenger floorboard. On the front passenger side seat deputies found “what appeared to be a suppressor type device,” or silencer, that fit over the barrel of the .22. (Silencers are legal in Florida. But they are also defined by law as weapons, and so illegal when possessed by a convicted felon.) Also found was a single magazine with four live rounds of .22 caliber ammunition, a box of 15 rounds of rifle ammunition, six additional rounds of ammunition scattered through the interior of the truck, plus a stun gun and brass knuckles in the glove box. Raymond was also carrying eight live rounds of .22-caliber ammunition.
Raymond told deputies that the rifle was his grandfather’s. He also accused a man called “Archie” of planting the firearm in his truck to get him in trouble, though he said he had not had contact with Archie in two to three months. Raymond said he’d returned to the Mondex to pick up various things and had no idea how the firearm ended up in his truck.
Raymond was charged with several counts of possession of weaponry by a convicted felon and two drug charges. At the time of his arrest he was out on bond on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender.
The K-9 who contributed to the arrest was Axle, a one-and-a-half year old Belgian Malinois, one of three K-9s the sheriff’s office activated this week after 480Â hours of training. It was the dog’s first arrest. The dog’s handler is deputy Aaron Beausoleil.
“Deputies never really know what they are walking into when they conduct a traffic stop,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a release. “Here we had something that could have been a simple warning for a broken brake light but it turned into multiple felony charges, more poison off our streets and a sex offender back in jail. Who knows what other crimes this traffic stop may have prevented? I am extremely proud of our newest K-9 Axle who just graduated and is already getting bad guys off the street. K-9 Axle gets a special treat!”
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ASF says
This is a dangerous fellow who needs to be incarcerated for as long as possible. Ten to one, he functions better in prison than he ever has anywhere else–even with a sex offender “kick me” sign hung around his neck.
steve says
Great work, LEOs, CYA
CB from PC says
Was he on his way to register to vote?
Don says
So NO DRUGS where found but residue on a scale. A .22 caliber rifle and less then 50 rounds of .22 rnds. I don’t give a RATS ASS about the loser felon, but drumming up charges I have a BIG PROBLEM with. Deputy Dog Staley pounds his chest and gets his MEDIA TIME like he actually accomplished something great. Can’t wait till elections !!!!
hawkeye says
this guy is a felon in possession of a firearm and ammo and brass knuckles and a suppressor, and drug residue,and drugs in his wallet and drugs in a hollowed out pen…..what drumming up charges are you talking about?,Hopefully he spends a long time in jail, where he belongs,P.S. I didnt see the sheriff pounding his chest ,I cant wait until he gets re-elected.
Johnt says
How do thses peope afford a home in palm coast? I think the judical system must pay for housing theses crooks and send them all to palm coast!
palmcoaster says
I have the feeling we have too much rift raft arriving in Palm Coast…they rent one single family home and sublet to many in “the trade” (drugs and prostitution). I see these bullies residing in homes around even the golf course on small houses were they have up to 3 large dogs some pitbulls (when I refer to pittbulls is because insurance companies denied coverage to owners of some breeds) and let dogs bark without stop for no other reason than golfers or walking residents presence. Are the landlords aware of these tenants activities on their properties? Increase vandalism in HOA common walls like was fixed and vandalized again in the Lake Forest and litter allover is a very concerning sing. Also the increase of also bullies in motor bikes or cars with open mufflers (and not being bike week now) speeding before and after past midnight and intentionally raving their engines from the Hammock Dunes bridge to I-95 into FPD, PHP and/or Old Kings Road. Makes it impossible to sleep, then we have the makeshift memorials on the side of the roads forever…My MD told me that and elderly lady , her patient was crossing Palm Coast Parkway with green light and was hit by a car , just because she walked slow and ended in the hospital badly injured…was never reported. Meanwhile more condos are planned all around in an area of single family homes. We need speed limit reduced in Palm Coast Parkway and adjacent residential roads or more law enforcement traffic units handing out fines to lethal speeders. Also some parents driving their kids to the school bus stops then “speeding in their u turns to go to work dragging the sod” of carefully maintained neighborhood right of way sod speak for itself about the “new” Palm Coast.
Mason says
Agreed
MelNoJudgements says
I agree. Staly loves any attention he can get!! Any one in the Mondex will back stab you! do you even think that maybe he is moving into his car, or perhaps people are dumping their stuff in their and he was in route to get rid of the guns in his possession from a safe he had at one place to another safe?Maybe he was in danger or someone he knew was in danger so he took their stuff to protect them and ran with it. Leave the past in the damn past, people in Flagler county all want to judge every one just by the past, big or small. Ya’ll that are pretty well off and haven’t been living here since you were a toddler have no idea how ugly people can be, or are just because you have a silver spoon stuck in your mouth. “Welcome to the Green Roof Inn”, indeed…you call the inn and charge for stay but give horrible problems and let the inmates die on the clock. Something about that doesn’t add up.