A Linton man found hiding under a mobile home last Sunday night is accused of trespassing on the rural property in the Sandborn area. He’s also been charged with meth possession.

Paul M. Turpin, 45, Linton, was arrested by Deputy Jordan Allor of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department last Sunday night, April 25.

Around 7:30 last Sunday night, a property owner called the sheriff’s department and said the property she owned on County Road 1225 West, Sandborn area, was abandoned and nobody should be there but she had seen people on the property. She also said she saw trash on the property as if someone had a party and the no-trespassing signs were gone.

Deputy Allor, the investigating officer, and Deputy Michael Coy responded and found a house, a mobile home, and another mobile home that had been torn down, along with a fire in a makeshift firepit.

When the deputies checked the mobile home announcing that if anyone was there, they should make themselves known, nobody answered but they found a syringe on the kitchen table, several packages of ramen noodles that looked like they were new, and a no-trespassing sign on the floor.

When they checked the house, they found two cell phones, a backpack, a syringe and an empty box of .22 caliber ammunition. Then they saw a tent on the property but nobody was inside.

As they continued searching around the property, Deputy Allor saw an opening in the underpinning of the mobile home and when he looked inside, he saw the lower half of a person’s body. He ordered the person to show their hands then to crawl out from under the mobile home.

The person was handcuffed then identified as Paul Turpin. During a pat-down, deputies found a smoking device in one of Turpin’s pockets. The pipe had a white residue that later field-tested positive as methamphetamine. After Turpin was in custody, Deputy Allor crawled under the trailer to check if anything else of interest was under there.

Turpin allegedly said he had been sleeping in the mobile home and his cousin gave him permission to be on the property. The cousin turned out to be the son of the property owner but the property owner said Turpin was not to be on the property.

A check of records revealed Turpin had one warrant out for his arrest in Greene County and two other warrants issued for his arrest in another county.

Turpin was transported to the Greene County Jail where he was booked in at 11:04 p.m. During the booking process, another smoking device was found on his person and it also tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine.

Turpin was held without bond pending court appearance on the new charges but in another case he was being held without bond – in August of 2020, Turpin was convicted of possession of a controlled substance, a Class A misdemeanor, and sentenced to one year in the county jail. He was given credit for 15 days already served and 335 days were suspended. In this case, he’s facing a petition to revoke his suspended sentence.

In the new case, Turpin has been charged with possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony, and criminal trespassing, a Class A misdemeanor.