Man suspected of heroin sales at Carlsbad shopping center

Carlsbad police arrested a man suspected of possessing heroin for sale, in the parking lot of the Carlsbad Plaza South Shopping Center in the 2500 block of El Camino Real, the early morning hours of June 22.

Officer Nathan Horton said it was about 4 a.m. that Thursday morning when he approached a Jaguar parked there, after he noticed the windows of the car were “fogged up.” The officer said he found three men “passed out” inside the car, and then he noticed that two of the men had small pieces of foil in their laps with black residue on the foil.

In the back seat of the car the officer found a black backpack, inside that backpack was a digital scale and plastic baggies. Several of the baggies contained different substances, which the officer said “presumptively tested positive” for black tar heroin and Mexican brown heroin and methamphetamine.

Officer Horton said the combined amount of heroin was a little less than 10 grams, and there was about .6 grams meth.

The registered owner of the car was Elisha Marcellus Peterson, the same person the officer found passed out in the front passenger seat. In conversation with the officer, Peterson first denied that the backpack belonged to him, but later claimed the backpack as his own, “because he did not want his brother to get in trouble,” according to the officer. Peterson’s brother was the man found passed out in the driver’s seat, behind the wheel of the Jaguar.

Officer Horton said that Elisha Peterson told him he was able to sell the Mexican brown heroin for $60 per gram. Officer Horton said he was wearing a body camera which recorded the encounter.

Elisha Marcellus Peterson, 28, was arrested and charged with possession of heroin for sale. He has at least three other criminal cases in San Diego Superior court, these for drugs and petty theft.

During a court hearing yesterday, July 11, a defense attorney suggested that because no firearm was found on his person, that showed that Peterson was not a drug dealer but instead the drugs in his car were “for personal use.”

Judge Harry Elias ordered Peterson to stand trial for possession of heroin for sale. Peterson continues to plead not guilty to all charges and is next due in court August 8, 2017.