A Heltonville woman was arrested in Nashville Nov. 8 after police responded to a call from a store about a woman who was crying and possibly intoxicated.

Nashville Police Officer Kyle Seward found Lisa Benefiel, 47, sitting outside the store. She told the officer she was there because “she was just trying not to go to jail,” according to a probable-cause affidavit. She said she had walked to a store from a nearby hotel, where she was staying.

Seward said he smelled alcohol on Benefiel and her eyes were red and watery.

A store employee told Seward that Benefiel had come up to the entrance crying and trying to pull a locked door open to get inside. The store was not open yet, but the employee let Benefiel in and she became “very loud” and began crying “a lot,” the affidavit said.

A breath test revealed Benefiel’s blood-alcohol content to be 0.19. She told Seward she had been drinking in her hotel room.

Seward searched Benefiel and reported finding a plastic sandwich bag containing about two grams of marijuana, the affidavit said.

Benefiel was arrested. She was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital because of the level of alcohol in her system, then booked into the Brown County jail.

On Nov. 17, she was charged with possession of marijuana, a Class A misdemeanor. A possession charge is normally a Class B misdemeanor, but Benefiel’s was increased because she was charged with the same crime in Lawrence County in 2012.