The son of a movie star was arrested Tuesday morning after Utah Highway Patrol troopers found two duffle bags full of marijuana in the trunk of his rental car.
UHP trooper Chamberlin Neff pulled over a rental car out of Los Angeles, with Pennsylvania license plates, in front of the Salt Lake City International Airport on I-80, for following another vehicle too close.
Immediately, Neff said red flags were raised because of the way the man and woman in the car were acting. The biggest clues came when Neff learned the rental car was due in Michigan Wednesday and when the man and woman kept contradicting each other's story, he said.
The man is the son of actor George Peppard, who died in 1994. Peppard starred in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" but may be best known for his role on the television series "The A-Team."
The man claimed he was going to visit his father's grave. But when Neff talked to the female passenger, she talked as if Peppard was still alive and they were on their way to visit him.
Neff then used his police K9, "Tank," to check for drugs. Immediately Tank made hits near the trunk, he said. A search revealed two duffle bags with approximately 40 pounds of marijuana inside with an estimated street value of $125,000. The woman had allegedly flown from New York to San Francisco the day before to buy the drugs, and then planned to drive back to Michigan with the man, Neff said.
Christian Peppard and Kelly Leigh Branton, 34, were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of marijuana possession, a second-degree felony. Peppard's mother is actress Elizabeth Ashley
The bust was relatively small, Neff said. But it highlighted a bigger problem of drugs and money being transported on I-80 and I-15 through the Salt Lake Valley in huge amounts, he said.
"The public would be shocked to know how much comes through here," he said.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com