Nichole Yon

A woman caught with several bags of suspected crack cocaine early Thursday morning claimed that she had just bought the drugs and they were for her personal use, Butler police said.

But text messages on her cell phone, according to investigators, indicated that Nichole R. Yon, 47, of Butler was the seller, not the buyer.

She also had a wallet full of $20-bills.

Yon was arrested and arraigned on felony charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and criminal use of a communication facility, and a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance.

She was being held in Butler County Prison on $25,000 bail.

A patrol officer about 12:30 a.m. noticed a car circling around a store parking lot at West Jefferson and West Cunningham streets, police said. The vehicle eventually pulled into the lot of the store, which was closed.

A short time later the officer saw a man run across a nearby street, get in and out of the car and walk away.

Police, suspecting a possible drug deal had occurred, stopped the car at West North and North Jackson streets.

The driver, identified as Yon, was acting “nervously,” according to court documents, and appeared to be trying to hide something under her left leg.

Police took her out of the car and found a plastic bag that contained three smaller bags holding suspected crack.

In her left hand, police said, she was holding three more small bags with what appeared to be crack in them.

Yon repeatedly told police the alleged drugs were for “personal use,” documents said.

A search of her wallet, police said, turned up $340 in currency, all in $20-bills. Police also seized two cell phones.

At the station Yon claimed that she had purchased the crack from the man who police had seen at the store parking lot. She said she knew him only as “Andrew.”

The defendant let police look at one of her phones, which revealed a text conversation she had with Andrew.

“In the conversation,” according to a police affidavit, “Andrew asks Yon if he can get another '50' off of her.” In her reply, she advises him where to meet her.

The texts, the affidavit said, showed that “Yon was the one selling to Andrew.”