WILMINGTON — A 66-year-old man has been charged with contaminating ice cream with a controlled substance earlier this month.
James Edwin Yokeley Jr. has been charged with contamination and felony child abuse and felony possession of schedule I narcotics.
On August 8, 2025, while on patrol, a Wilmington police officer was flagged down by Yokeley at the Sheetz gas station at 2517 Shipyard Blvd. According to the Wilmington Police Department, Yokeley informed the officer that his two juvenile granddaughters had found two pills in the ice cream they had recently purchased at the Dairy Queen located on Oleander Drive.
WPD says medical personnel checked the two juveniles and determined that they had not ingested any of the substances. The two pills were collected, and preliminary field tests conducted indicated that the pills were illegal narcotics, including MDMA and cocaine. Those pills have since been sent to a state lab for further testing.
WPD detectives were also notified and opened an investigation. During the investigation, it was determined by video footage that Yokeley had been the one who placed the two pills into both victims’ ice cream.
Yokeley, who was appointed in June by State Auditor Dave Boliek as chair of Surry County Board of Elections, was being held at the New Hanover County Detention Center with a $100,000 secured bond, which he posted.
The investigation is ongoing.
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