Just-released prisoner free for 66 minutes before arrest

Florence (KPHO) -- Sixty-six minutes. That's the time it took for a man just released from an Arizona prison to get a ticket back to a cell.

 

Daniel Clegg, 34, was arrested by a Pinal County sheriff's deputy at 9:06 a.m. Thursday after a Lexus sedan in which he was riding was stopped at a truck stop on Interstate 10 for what the deputy said was several traffic violations, a PCSO spokesman said.

 

The deputy said Clegg's shirt was covered with marijuana flakes and that the car smelled of marijuana, though Clegg denied there was any marijuana, the spokesman said.

 

The driver denied having anything illegal in the car and that he had picked Clegg up from the Arizona prison in Florence at 8 a.m. and was headed to Sahuarita, the spokesman said.

 

A search of the sedan turned up marijuana underneath the front passenger seat, rolling papers in the passenger door pocket and a cardboard box from the Arizona Department of Corrections, the spokesman said.

 

The box contained letters and other paperwork Clegg had from the time he spent in prison. On top of the paperwork was a fully loaded Ruger 9mm handgun with hollow-point bullets, the spokesman said.

 

Clegg denied owning the gun, but said he was aware it was in the car and that he simply put his paperwork under the gun. The driver denied the gun was his, the spokesman said.

 

Clegg was arrested and booked into the Pinal County Jail for possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and misconduct involving a weapon.

 

Since Clegg is a convicted felon, he is also a prohibited possessor of firearms, the spokesman said.

 

Clegg has prior arrests for possession of a dangerous drug, possession of a narcotic drug, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, theft, burglary and aggravated assault. 

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