Ogden courthouse bomb-threat suspect was also a drug dealer, police say

Police officers say they were looking for a man who evaded court for three weeks in a row because his girlfriend called in bomb threats. Officers found the man and, they said, enough drug evidence to charge him Wednesday with two first-degree felonies.

Jerry Kenton Larkin and his girlfriend, Tonisha Chontae Lester, both 44, became suspects after the Ogden Courthouse received a bomb threat in three consecutive Thursdays last month. Larkin was the only person with court hearings on all three dates and times.

But the caller sounded like a woman, not Larkin, according to a probable cause statement. Police listened to Larkin’s calls, finding that he often called Lester and that she sounded like the person who phoned in the bomb threats.

Using arrest records, police found Larkin and Lester to be living on Dan Street in Ogden. Officers got a search warrant and knocked on the door. After no one answered, they used a key provided by property management, according to police records.

After two minutes of calling out from the doorway, Larkin approached with his hands up. He was arrested and taken into custody on a no-bail warrant for failing to appear at court.

Police also found Lester, who was arrested and charged last week with three counts of making a false alarm, a second-degree felony.

Back at the station, according to police records, Larkin told authorities that Lester had called in the threats to keep him from being sentenced for a DUI. He said the two had argued about what she had done.

During the interview, Officer Darren Goff was told that police still searching the home had found methamphetamine and psilocybin mushrooms. The meth was in a bedroom and the bathroom sink, and the mushrooms were found partially flushed down a toilet, according to police records.

Larkin occasionally sold meth, he allegedly told Goff, and had about a “quarter ounce of meth and mushrooms.”

Larkin was booked into the Weber County jail on April 20, where he is being held without bail. Lester was also booked but was transferred to the Davis County jail, where she is being held without bail.

Larkin was scheduled to make an initial appearance in Ogden’s 2nd District Court on Thursday, and Lester is next scheduled to appear in Farmington’s 2nd District Court on Monday.