SAXONBURG — A man and woman are headed for trial following a traffic stop in Middlesex Township in which police said they found suspected drugs, other contraband, a loaded handgun with a filed-off serial number, and a set of brass knuckles in separate backpacks.

District Judge Sue Haggerty at a preliminary hearing Wednesday ordered Zeke S. Grant, 21, of Cranberry Township and Elisandra F. Smart, 19, of Pittsburgh held for court on felony drug and other charges.

Haggerty made her ruling despite arguments by Smart's attorney that his client was only a marijuana user who had marijuana for personal use.

Middlesex police Officer Mark Heider testified that he was on patrol on Route 8 around 10:50 p.m. July 9 when he pulled over a car for a pair of traffic violations.

Grant was the driver and Smart was a front-seat passenger. Heider said he smelled a “strong odor” of marijuana coming from both sides of the car.

“Miss Smart stated that she did have some in her backpack,” Heider said. “She opened the backpack for me and in plain view of the large pocket of the backpack that she had in her possession there were multiple clear plastic bags with what appeared to be marijuana.”

Heider searched the backpack and he listed the seized items: a pill bottle and plastic container with suspected marijuana as well as marijuana vapes, a scale, marijuana grinder and pipe, $137 in currency and bags of suspected THC wax.

Others items found were 24 “hits” of suspected LSD and 24 pills of suspected ecstasy, and a set of metal knuckles.

The officer noted that the suspected drugs have not yet been sent to the state police crime lab for analysis.

“Based on your training and experience, the totality of that backpack, what does that packaging and all of that indicate to you?” prosecutor Amanda Scarpo, a county assistant district attorney, asked Heider.

“The totality of everything contained in that particular backpack,” the officer replied, “indicated to me that there's the likelihood of narcotics sale and delivery.”

On cross-examination by Adam Bishop of Pittsburgh, Smart's attorney, Heider admitted that some of the items — such as the grinder, pipe and scale — could be considered “user paraphernalia.”

But he disagreed with Bishop's assertion that the suspected acid and ecstasy were indicative of personal use.

Heider said he also searched a second backpack that was found on top of the center console between the two front seats. Grant, he said, claimed ownership of that pack.

When it was opened, police allegedly found a Ruger 9 mm pistol with a magazine loaded with nine rounds and one round in the chamber. The gun's serial number “had been obliterated,” Heider said.

A check of Grant's criminal history showed he had a felony drug-related conviction in 2017 in Texas. Because of that, Heider said, he is prohibited from possessing any firearms in Pennsylvania.

The search of the pack also turned up a plastic gallon container and a small jar, both with suspected marijuana, drug-packaging materials, two electronic scales, $433 and handwritten sheets of paper suggesting the dealing of drugs.

“The totality of everything that was included in the backpack,” Heider told Scarpo, “indicated to me that drug trafficking and sale were likely.”

During questioning by Grant's attorney, public defender Ryan Helsel, the officer testified that Grant claimed some of the contents in Smart's backpack — namely the suspected LSD and ecstasy — were his.

That revelation appeared to surprise Bishop.

Following testimony, Bishop asked Haggerty to dismiss the felony drug possession charge against his client, who he referred to as a “19-year-old girl with no prior interaction with police.”

Smart had no previous criminal record, as opposed to Grant, who Bishop said has a “lengthy criminal history.”

He argued that the marijuana found in his client's backpack was “consistent with personal use,” while pointing to testimony that Grant had taken ownership of the suspected acid and ecstasy in the same pack.

But Scarpo told Haggerty that she had met the burden to have all charges bound over for court.

“(Heider) said each of the individual things by themselves may well indicate use,” she said. “However, taken on the totality of the circumstances and given (Heider's) training and experience, that is not what they indicate in the collective.”

Haggerty held both defendants on felony charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.

Additionally, Grant was held on felony charges of persons not to possess firearms and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, and a misdemeanor charge of possession of a firearm without a carry license.

Smart also was held on a misdemeanor charge of possession of a prohibited offensive weapon.

Both defendants have been held in the Butler County Prison since their arrests. Haggerty refused a request to lower Grant's $100,000 bond.

She agreed to reduce Smart's bond from $30,000 to $20,000 with the condition that she only be released into pretrial supervision.