Two Villagers with long criminal histories were jailed after a traffic stop at Wawa at County Road 466 and U.S. 301 in Oxford.
A gray Nissan with North Carolina license plates was traveling at 7:42 p.m. Saturday when a deputy noticed that its front headlight was not working, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. In addition, the driver was not wearing a seatbelt. The vehicle pulled into Wawa and the deputy initiated a traffic stop.
Two passengers looked “physically nervous” and were identified as 48-year-old Charlotte Gajewsky, who was nabbed in 2017 in a famous drug bust in the Village of Palo Alto, and 65-year-old William John Verticelli, who has been arrested in the past on numerous drug and weapons charges at the home of his mother, also in the Village of Palo Alto. Most recently, that home has been the subject of a junk car complaint.
A K-9 unit was summoned to the scene and the dog alerted on the vehicle, indicating the likely presence of drugs.
Gajewsky, who was released from a Florida prison in 2018, was found to be in possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. A check revealed that Verticelli was wanted on a warrant ordering the revocation of his bond from previous arrests. Verticelli refused to get out of the car and said he was going to “smoke another cigarette,” the report said. Deputies removed him from the vehicle, but he resisted efforts to be handcuffed.
Gajewsky and Verticelli were taken into custody and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center.
Verticelli was booked without bond. Gajewsky, who still lists a Village of Palo Alto address, was held on $3,000 bond.
