District Attorney’s Office press release
On Monday, Jan. 4, Kandra Michelle Murphy, 41, formerly of Mabank, was sentenced to 10 years confinement in prison for Possession of a Controlled Substance.
Assistant District Attorney Justin Weiner prosecuted the case on behalf of Scott McKee’s District Attorney’s Office. Murphy was sentenced in the 392nd Judicial District Court by Judge Carter Tarrance.
Murphy was indicted by a Henderson Grand Jury based on a December 2014 traffic stop by the Henderson County Sherriff’s Office.
On Dec. 1, Sergeant Matthew Jistel and Deputy Bobby Gunnels of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office made a traffic stop on a car driven by Murphy who also had a passenger by the name of John Thomas Armstrong, 28, formerly of Gun Barrel City. Both Murphy and Armstrong acted nervous and ultimately Murphy was asked to step out of the vehicle. Immediately upon Murphy’s exit from the vehicle, Armstrong told the deputies that Murphy had tried to “dump something off on him.” With Murphy out of the vehicle, Sergeant Jistel was able to see a baggie of what he believed to be methamphetamine just inside Murphy’s open purse in plain view.
Though Murphy denied knowledge of the methamphetamine, a black digital scale was found in her jacket. Murphy also gave Sergeant Jistel a glass pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine from inside of her pants.
While searching the remainder of the vehicle, Murphy was allowed to make a phone call in the back of a patrol vehicle. Murphy called her mother in hopes that she would pick up her vehicle in lieu of it being impounded. A video and audio recording system, inside the patrol vehicle, captured Murphy’s conversation with her mother. During that conversation, Murphy told her mother that she was planning on selling the methamphetamine with Armstrong in the Oak Harbor Subdivision.
An analysis of the substance found in Murphy’s purse by the Texas Department of Public Safety Laboratory in Tyler confirmed it was methamphetamine with a weight of 6.47 grams.
District Attorney Scott McKee indicated he was pleased with the prison sentence. “By her own admission, Murphy was planning on selling methamphetamine in Oak Harbor,” said McKee. “She won’t be selling narcotics to anyone anytime soon.”