Felon reportedly had illegal guns, drugs in Tahoe hotel
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — A Feb. 3 search of a Motel 6 in South Lake Tahoe by El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office deputies allegedly found a convicted felon in possession of multiple weapons and drug paraphernalia.
South Lake Tahoe residents Joshua Pettus, 36, and Christina Mettler, 43, were arrested by deputies following a probation search that uncovered four illegally-manufactured firearms and paraphernalia related to possible heroin use, according to information from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. A four-year-old boy who was in the motel room with the pair was placed into protective custody due to what sheriff’s officials described as unsafe living conditions.
The guns appear to be the kind that have been referred to as ghost guns — firearms sold as build-at-home kits, made to be unserialized and untraceable.
Inmate records show that Pettus faces charges including possession of firearms as a felon, burglary, forgery and using false identification, child abuse and possession of drug paraphernalia. Pettus is being held in the county jail with bail set at $368,000.
Mettler has since been released from custody, according to EDSO.
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