Berkeley car stop leads to drug sales, gun charges
Kenya Helton told police that she had the gun "for safety" and that the drugs "belonged to a friend who left them inside her vehicle."
Police in Berkeley seized a loaded gun as well as drugs packaged for sale during a recent car stop in the marina, authorities say.
On March 7, a Berkeley police officer on patrol spotted a Mercedes without license plates at Marina Boulevard and University Avenue at about 9:30 p.m.
While speaking to the driver, the officer could smell burnt marijuana and saw remnants of it inside the car, he wrote.
The driver "also told me she recently smoked and showed me a burnt marijuana cigarette," the officer wrote in charging papers.
Read more about crime in Berkeley.
The driver, 43-year-old Kenya Helton of Oakland, also admitted that she had a gun in her backpack, police wrote.
Officers found the loaded gun during a search, according to charging papers.
They also found additional marijuana as well as "several individually packaged bindles of suspected methamphetamine and crack cocaine."
Kenya Helton. BPD
Helton told police that she had the gun "for safety" and said the drugs, which police found in her pocket, "belonged to a friend who left them inside her vehicle."
The Alameda County district attorney's office charged Helton with five felonies related to drug sales and gun possession.
She was released on her own recognizance in mid-March.
She is set to appear in court for a progress report hearing April 10.
Berkeley police have seized nearly 30 guns so far this year, according to department data.
