LOGAN — In a pair of related drug cases that have seen the two out-of-county defendants both accept plea bargains and then later withdraw their guilty pleas, the Hocking County Prosecutor’s Office has now filed superseding indictments for both men, significantly upping the charges against them.
Malik Bryant and Dayshawn Bland, both 26 years old and both from Franklin County, were arrested almost a year ago while traveling through Hocking County to West Virginia in an Uber vehicle. Hocking County Sheriff’s officers pulled the vehicle over for erratic driving, and then searched it, allegedly after smelling marijuana. In a rear compartment, they allegedly found a large quantity of methamphetamine in duffel bags that they have said belonged to Bryant and Bland.
The pair were each indicted in February 2023 on two counts of aggravated drug possession with major drug offender (MDO) specifications, which can affect sentencing. Last September they took identical plea deals, pleading guilty to one count each of aggravated drug possession, in return for which the county prosecutor’s office dismissed the second count, and removed the MDO specification from the remaining count. Not long afterward, however, both men asked to withdraw their guilty pleas and Judge Jason Despetorich allowed them to do so.