DUCHESNE COUNTY, Utah, Aug. 22, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A Duchesne County man was arrested Thursday on 28 weapons felonies and seven drug felonies after sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene on a report of man who was hallucinating and threatening to “stab people in the insulation in the ceiling of his bedroom.”
Officers arrived at the scene, on South River Road in an unincorporated area of Duchesne County, and talked to 40-year-old Robert Lee Rhoades, who officers say was out on parole and restricted from having weapons, but who was discovered to have more than two dozen knives, as well as a quantity of illegal drugs.
Deputies arrived and were told Rhoades believed “there were people living in the insulation of his ceiling, and were going to hurt him,” his probable cause statement says. “I asked Robert if he had any weapons on him and he stated he did not. I asked him where the knife was he was carrying around, and he stated that it was stuck in a box in the basement. I then asked Robert to sit in my patrol vehicle while I looked in his room for the individuals.”
The search of Rhoades’ room turned up drug paraphernalia, three vials of Naloxone, four pieces of tin foil with a brown substance consistent with heroin, and a rubber container and a baggie with the same type of brown substance, several syringes, two torches, a scale like those used for measuring drugs, and 28 different types of knives, including “10 large pocket knives, two 4-inch long hunting knives, 13 throwing daggers, a switchblade, a Chinese throwing star, and one three-bladed miscellaneous knife.”
An officer asked Rhoades if he had used heroin recently, and Rhoades said he had used it that afternoon, the statement says.
“It was both mine and Sgt. Reilly’s belief that Robert had consumed a bad batch of heroin, and that was contributing to his behavior,” the deputy’s statement says.
A family member told officers Rhoades also had been mixing cleaning fluids in an attempt to make tear gas “to use on the people in the ceiling. Robert also stated he was going to use a nearby pitchfork, and stab it into the ceiling in an attempt to injure the people living in the ceiling.”
After being examined and given a medical clearance, Rhoades was booked into the Duchesne County Jail on suspicion of:
- 28 counts of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, a third-degree felony
- Seven counts of possession of a controlled substance, schedule I/II/analog, a class A misdemeanor
- Threat/use of dangerous weapon in a fight, a class A misdemeanor
- Carry a dangerous weapon under the influence of alcohol/drugs, a class B misdemeanor
- Use or possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor
Rhoades is being held without bail.
