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A couple from Georgia is facing charges after a billing issue for a rental cabin had brought police involvement.

On July 4 Officer Zachary Magouirk made contact with a rental property owner who stated that she had rented a cabin to a couple on July 1 for a two night stay.

The woman said that the credit card that the couple provided was declined and after several attempts to collect the debts, she asked the couple to leave.

The woman said that the couple stayed a third night and when confronted, the couple stated that they were homeless.

The woman again asked them to leave but they failed to do so.

Magouirk went to the cabin to remove the couple later identified as Gary Elliott and Christina McDaniel, from the property at the request of Shultz.

Magouirk went to the main entrance of the cabin which is located on the back side of the residence at which time Magouirk made contact with Elliott after knocking on the door.

Magouirk explained that the owners of the cabin wanted them to leave so they needed to start gathering their belongings. Elliott started walking back into the cabin and went into the bathroom located on the far side of the cabin from the rear door at which time he shut himself inside.

After a few moments Elliott exited the bathroom and began gathering random belongings in an almost frantic manner.

Elliott went towards the TV in the living room and grabbed an Xbox off of the TV stand at which time Magouirk noticed what appeared to be a sawed off shotgun hanging by it’s trigger guard from the fireplace tool hook, close to the TV. At this time Magouirk, grabbed Elliott by the arm and picked up the shotgun simultaneously before escorting Elliott across the room to Deputy C. Franco to be taken into custody.

The shotgun was later identified as a Revelation Model 350A single shot .20 gauge shotgun. The shotgun was later measured at approximately 27.25 inches over all with a barrel length of approximately 11.75 inches and did not have a serial number.

The shotgun did have a round in the chamber, one round hot glued to the stock and there were three spare rounds located on the fire place mantle directly above where the firearm was hanging.

While crossing the room Magouirk noticed a baggie containing approximately 3.80 grams of a crystal like substance believed to be methamphetamine.

Around this time Elliott’s girlfriend, Christina McDaniel, exited the bathroom at which time Magouirk asked her who owned the methamphetamine located on the couch arm to which she replied “it’s mine.”

McDaniel was taken into custody.

While Magouirk was taking McDaniel into custody, Deputy J. Sutton searched Elliott at which time he located approximately 1.03 grams of a white powdery substance, suspected to be fentanyl, inside of Elliott’s left front shorts pocket.

The suspected fentanyl was contained inside a baggie that was stuffed into a green metal tube with screw caps on each end and when Sutton asked Elliott the green tube was he acknowledged ownership of the tube by stating that he uses it to store cigars.

Sgt. M. Williams then went into the bathroom where located a wallet that appeared to belong to McDaniel.

Williams opened the wallet to locate an identification on McDaniel at which time she discovered approximately 1.0 grams of a crystal like substance believed to be methamphetamine that was contained in two small baggies, both shoved into a small plastic tube inside of the wallet that also contained McDaniel’s Georgia driver’s license.

During this time Deputy A. Reese located a loaded Sportarms .38 Special revolver containing six live rounds, wedged between the right couch cushion and the right couch arm where the suspected methamphetamine had previously been found.

Williams located several bags of luggage in a small closet under the stair well that was just outside of the bathroom door where Elliott and McDaniel had previously been.

Williams began to go through a blue backpack located closest to the front of the closet at which time she located a small metal container in the front pocket of the backpack that contained approximately 18.18 grams of a crystal like substance suspected to be methamphetamine.

Magouirk advised Williams to leave the substance in the bag and to discontinue any search until Magouirk could make contact with the Cocke County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Division. Magouirk made contact with Narcotics Sergeant B. Cupp who did respond to the scene. Cupp did Mirandize bothElliott and McDaniel and received verbal consent to search all luggage in the cabin along with a vehicle that McDaniel claimed ownership of that was parked in the driveway. Sutton along with Deputy G. Valentine stood with Elliott and McDaniel during the search so that they could effectively withdraw consent if they decided to do so.

At this time Magouirk recovered the suspected methamphetamine previously located by Williams in the blue back pack and continued the search.

Williams also located a large bag containing several cell phones and credit cards in the same blue back pack which was later discovered by Williams to contain Elliott’s Georgia identification along with two Xbox controllers. Elliott had previously stated that the only thing in the cabin that he owned was the Xbox that was plugged into the TV but the only controllers located for the Xbox in the cabin where those in the back pack that also contained the suspected methamphetamine and Elliott’s ID.

During a search of the vehicle, Deputy A. Reese located a set of digital scales in the glove box on the passenger side of the vehicle and a small zip lock bag in the passenger side door pocket containing several smaller CVS pill pouches, both commonly used in the sale of narcotics.

Neither Elliott nor McDaniel claimed ownership of the firearms or narcotics located inside of the cabin, other than the suspected methamphetamine claimed by McDaniel, but they had been the only occupants of the cabin and Magouirk had asked the owners of the cabin if they had previously cleaned the cabin and if they store any firearms in the cabin.

The owners said they did not and that they thoroughly clean the cabin between each rental and none of the firearms or narcotics had been there previously.

It was confirmed through central dispatch via criminal history that McDaniel is a convicted felon.

Elliott claimed to be a convicted felon but his criminal history did not showing any convictions.

Elliott and McDaniel were transported to the Cocke County Jail without incident.

Elliott and McDaniel both had just recently arrived in Tennessee from Georgia before renting this cabin, as they stated to get away from McDaniel’s ex-boyfriend implying that they had crossed stated lines with the narcotics and firearms, given the short amount of time they had been in Tennessee.