Bremerton resident Roby-Benjamin C. Fernandez, 24, of the 1400 block of Cottman Avenue, has been charged in Kitsap County District Court with unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree.

After responding to a report of a burglary in the 3200 block of Wright Avenue, in which a caller said that Fernandez was trying to kick a door down and had attempted to jump through a front window, police encountered him getting out of a van in the driveway. They ordered him to the ground at gunpoint and soon noticed four marijuana plants in the vehicle, which he said belonged to his girlfriend. His girlfriend confirmed that the plants were hers and she provided a medical marijuana card to officers.

Police reports indicate that Fernandez then gave his consent for officers to search the van.

“I asked Fernandez if there was anything else in the vehicle I needed to know about and he said, ‘no,’ “ a police report states. “Since the vehicle was registered to Fernandez, he said he owned it, and he had been sitting in it when I contacted him I asked him for his consent to search his vehicle and he said, ‘Go ahead.’ I told him to let me know if he wanted me to stop searching it at any time.”

After removing the marijuana plants from the vehicle, officers spotted a metal lock box which was immediately recognizable as a gun safe or gun lock box in a drawer beneath the front passenger seat. He told officers he didn’t care if they opened the gun box because it wasn’t his.

Officers opened the box and located a handgun, a digital scale with white residue on it, a baggie with a couple large chunks of crystal like substance that ultimately field-tested positive as methamphetamine, a bowl with more white residue and a magazine for the gun. A records check indicated that Fernandez is a felon, something he acknowledged when asked, making it illegal for him to possess a handgun.

“I asked Fernandez about the (gun) box and he said it was not his and he did not know it was in there,” an officer wrote in his report. “Fernandez told me he bought the vehicle three days prior and did not know what was in it when he bought it.”