A Hazard man was convicted last week by a Perry County jury on drug possession and tampering with physical evidence charges.

Jeffery Wayne Feltner, 41, of Hazard, was indicted on one count each of possession of oxycodone, possession of drug paraphernalia, and tampering with physical evidence.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Teresa Reed said that Feltner was a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over by police on Raccoon Creek Road in the Glomawr community and while police talked to the driver of the car, Feltner threw a syringe out the window of the vehicle. None of the police saw Feltner throw the syringe out the window, but one of them, David Wiseman, a Detective with the Hazard City Police Department (HPD) at the time, thought he saw someone throw something out the corner of his eye and looked at Feltner who was sitting in the passenger’s seat, Reed said.

After searching in the weeds by the car, where it looked like something had fallen, Reed said that Wiseman found a syringe with a clear liquid in it and asked Feltner if he had thrown it out of the vehicle and he admitted to doing so.

“Later on someone asked Jeff what was in it [the syringe] and he said there was an OC in it. The officer asked him why he threw the syringe out and he said he didn’t want anyone to find it and he wanted to get rid of it,” Reed added. “Basically he confessed to everything.”

After obtaining special permission from the lab in London to test the contents of the syringe the results confirmed that it contained oxycodone, but the number of pills is unsure, Reed said.

Other officers on the case included HPD Captains James East and Jack Duff. Reed said this information never came out during the trial, but the reason they were in the county, where the stop was made, was because they were investigating another crime that had occurred in the city the night before.

The jury recommended the maximum of five years on the possession of a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence charges, both class D felonies and 12 months for the possession of drug paraphernalia charge, a misdemeanor.

Feltner’s attorney, Danny Rose, declined to comment on the case.