A 45-year-old Summerfield man was jailed Monday afternoon after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy spotted him driving erratically, swerving and traveling at 36 mph in a 55-mph zone.
The driver, later identified as Nathan Allen Thacker, continued to travel on S.E. 147th Street after the deputy turned on his emergency lights and siren. Thacker eventually stopped in the 6600 block of S.E. 147th Street and after he was removed from his black Ford F-350 pickup truck, the deputy detected a strong smell of intoxicating beverages coming from him, a report states.
Deputies searched Thacker’s vehicle and located an open container of Smirnoff Seltzer. Thacker said he had consumed “about 3 drinks,” the report says.
Deputies invited Seltzer to participate in field sobriety exercises, which he agreed to do. He failed all of them and was then placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail.
Thacker told deputies that he didn’t have a driver’s license because it had been suspended in Colorado for failure to pay child support, which deputies confirmed. Thacker also told deputies that the tag he had attached to his pickup belonged to a Chevrolet Trailblazer he sold in Colorado. He said he purchased the pickup in Colorado but was unable to transfer the tag “due to COVID-19,” the report says.
Thacker refused to provide a breath sample to check for blood alcohol content and was charged with driving with license suspended or revoked, refusing to submit to a driving under the influence test after license suspended and failing to register a motor vehicle. He was being held on $2,000 bond and his next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.
