LONGVIEW/GREGG COUNTY (KYTX) - Police staking out an east Longview motel late Thursday apprehended a wanted Smith County sex offender.
Michael Shannon Stephens, 40, of Henderson, already has a 2010 conviction of failing to register as a sex offender on his criminal record. Now, he is wanted in Smith County for again failing to register, not to mention a felony drug charge he incurred Thursday.
He served a six-year prison sentence after a 1997 conviction in Gregg County for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
At about 8:15 p.m. Thursday, Longview police officer Anthony Minyard was working a special assignment targeting the Texas Lodge, at 1507 E. Marshall Avenue. According to an arrest affidavit, Minyard noticed a silver flatbed work truck pulling into the parking lot, and the driver, later identified as Stephens, enter an upstairs room. Moments later, Stephens left the room and drove from the parking lot, but he failed to signal a lane change, and Minyard initiated a traffic stop of the truck.
During the stop, Minyard was alerted of the Smith County warrant for Stephens and, thereby, arrested him. During a search of Stephens' pockets, Minyard found six rocks of crack cocaine, each in a separate small Ziploc bag. The cocaine weighed 1.3 grams.
Stephens remains in the Gregg County Jail today on $170,000 bond.
MIchael Shannon Stephens
