Love During Lockup star Dustin Phillips seems to be setting himself up for another season of the show as he continues to add more criminal charges to his vast collection.
The 28-year-old is currently back behind bars in Florida after he decided it would be a good idea to drive around with no seatbelt, a suspended license, and some meth.
On the show, Dustin and his ex Jessica were looking to find a place to live in Tennessee because that’s where Dustin’s family lives. However, Dustin is actually from a small town north of Jacksonville, Florida called Yulee.
He has since returned to his hometown, and that’s where he has been arrested twice in the past 30 days. Both arrests were due in part to the fact that local police recognized Dustin — which is pretty easy given his prominent facial tattoos.
Dustin is currently in the custody of the Nassau County Jail. He has been charged with a felony count of meth possession, a felony count of driving with a suspended license (habitual offender), and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia with residue. His bond is set at $7,506.00.
Starcasm obtained a copy of the arrest report from Dustin Phillips’ most recent arrest. According to the report, Dustin was observed driving a black Nissan Sentra early in the afternoon on June 5.
The officer states in his report that he recognized Dustin, “who I personally knew not to have a valid driver’s license.” Dustin was also observed not wearing his seatbelt.
“As I activated my emergency lights to conduct my traffic stop, the listed vehicle appeared to down shift and accelerate for a short distance,” the officer says. “While the vehicle was accelerating, Dustin began making multiple furtive movements inside the vehicle as if he was franticly trying to conceal something.”
After the stop, Dustin admitted he was aware he did not have a valid driver’s license and said he “was just trying to get to a friend’s house up the road.”
“While speaking with Dustin, I observed his chest rising and falling as if he was breathing very heavy and his hands were noticeably shaking,” the officer continues in the report. “Based on my observations, I asked Dustin to exit the vehicle.”
From the report:
Once outside the vehicle, I asked Dustin if he had anything illegal inside the vehicle, which he stated he didn’t. I asked Dustin for consent to search the vehicle, which he denied.
Based off my observation of Dustin’s overall nervous behavior, paired with the furtive movements prior to the traffic stop, I reasonably believed Dustin was concealing something illegal inside the listed vehicle.
At that time, I deploypd my narcotics K9 Zeus around the listed vehicle and directed him to sniff the exterior of the vehicle for the odor of narcotics. K9 Zeus gave a positive alert to the odor of narcotics inside the vehicle.
A probable cause search of the vehicle was conducted. Located At the headliner, just above the driver’s seat was it plastic bag with a crystal-like substance inside it that based of my training and experience I knew to be Methamphetamine.
Located in the back-floor board, behind the driver’s seat was a used needle with residue inside it.
Dustin was read his Miranda Rights by me and stated he understood them. Dustin denied ownership of the listed crystal-like substance. The listed crystal-like substance field tested positive for Methamphetamine and had a total bagged weight of 2.1 grams.
The officer ran Dustin through the Driver and Vehicle Information Database, which revealed that his driver’s license had been suspended since September of 2018 and Dustin was classified as a Habitual Traffic Offender.
According to the arrest report, Dustin has a court date scheduled for June 29.
Dustin Phillips May 2023 arrest
Last month, an officer spotted Dustin outside of a convenience store and knew that he had an outstanding warrant from Tennessee. When the officer asked Dustin to stop and come over to him, Dustin said, “nah Jackson come on” before attempting to flee on foot. He was caught and booked on a misdemeanor count of resisting an officer without violence.
What makes Dustin’s attempt to flee more tragic is the arresting police department contacted authorities in Tennessee and was informed “the entering jurisdiction did not want to extradite” Dustin.
Dustin entered a plea of no contest to the resisting an officer without violence charge and was found guilty on May 22. He was fined $373 and sentenced to 14 days in jail with 14 days credit for time served.
#LoveDuringLockup We've got more info on Dustin's arrest last week, and it's CRAZY! He was reportedly caught in Jessica's bed with another woman, choked Jessica, stole her truck, then was in a police chase. 🤦🏻♀️ #FelonsGonnaFelon #LoveAfterLockup https://t.co/KI4kYMemHn
— Starcasm (@starcasm) February 16, 2023
Dustin Phillips 2023 Tennessee arrest
Prior to Dustin attempting to run from Florida police in May, the last time we checked in with Dustin was in February, soon after he was arrested in Tennessee. YouTuber According to Amber reported that Jessica caught Dustin in their bed with another woman, and that set off the chain of events that resulted in Dustin’s arrest. From Amber:
When Jessica told Dustin and this girl to get out of her house, he ended up choking Jessica out, and he tried to protect the other girl over Jessica. And then he ended up grabbing Jessica’s truck keys and stealing her truck and driving off with this girl…He ended up getting in a high-speed chase with police.
Dustin was booked on charges of reckless endangerment, theft of property, felony evading, domestic assault, and reckless driving. It’s unclear if this is the case that resulted in the warrant for Dustin’s arrest. Given the seriousness of the charges, it seems Tennessee would want to extradite Dustin if that were the case.
Unfortunately, the Tennessee court records are behind a fairly large paywall. VINE indicates that Dustin still has two open court cases in Tennessee — one in Franklin County, and the other in Bedford County. Both appear to be criminal cases filed this year.
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
