ONLY ON 3: Carolina Beach woman facing extradition for drug case from 20 years ago

NEW HANOVER, COUNTY (WWAY) — A Carolina Beach woman is in the New Hanover County jail and is facing extradition to Texas for a drug trafficking case from 20 years ago.

Carrie Marie Stone is a mother and business owner in Carolina Beach. She said back in 1996, when she was 21, she made a big mistake.

“I was stupid, transported marijuana through Texas, and yes I was caught,” said Stone. “I knew what was in my bag and I was helping a friend, and was very impulsive and just extremely stupid.”

According to the Houston DA’s office Stone was arrested at the airport September of 1996, when drug dogs picked up the scent of marijuana in her luggage.  Records show she was transporting 65 pounds of marijuana. At the time that was about $146,000 worth of weed. She was charged with felony possession of marijuana.

She said she was given 4 years’ probation, 400 hours of community service, and several hundred dollars of fines.

“All the fines and fees were paid, I did 3 1/2 of my probation, and I did all 400 hours of community service with the Red Cross,” said Stone. “ At 3 ½ years my grandmother dies, I broke up with my boyfriend, I was still very young, I was stupid and I smoked marijuana, and came up dirty on a drug test, at which point I absconded justice and never returned to Texas.”

Twenty years later that choice has brought Stone to the New Hanover County jail on a fugitive warrant. She is wanted in Harris County Texas for probation violations but Stone said all these years she thought her case was ‘inactive’. She said she hired lawyers and she was told her case was ‘inactive’ and she moved on with her life.

She had two kids and opened a dance studio called Pleasure Island Dance Company. She says the studio has been open since 2011 but she has been teaching dance for years. She said she has taught more than 200 students. And Stone said she hasn’t been in trouble with law since and has been focusing on being a positive member of her community.

“I’m 41 and I do believe that people do change, and can change and there’s good in everybody,” said Stone. “There’s always been good in me, not to say that I wasn’t stupid or impulsive and there’s not things that need to be held accounted for.”

Stone said she wishes to stay in North Carolina to be close to her children. She said she does not want to be extradited back to Texas.

Her court date is next Monday. She is asking people who know her to write letters to help convince the judge to not send her back to Texas.