SLIPPERY ROCK — A Butler Township man is jailed on felony and other drug charges after police last week found nearly a dozen marijuana plants, processed marijuana and other contraband at his girlfriend’s home in the borough.

Larry Robert Kley Jr., 24, took responsibility for all the suspected drugs and related paraphernalia, said Slippery Rock police Lt. Brian Hoak.

“He told (his girlfriend) the marijuana plants were tomato plants,” Hoak said.

A preliminary hearing for Kley on charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, and possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia will be held Wednesday at the office of District Judge Tim Shaffer.

He remains in the Butler County Prison on $35,000 bail.

Police arrested Kley on Thursday at the home of his girlfriend, Jenelle Fornelli, in the Madison Grove apartment complex.

Officers were called there after a maintenance worker reported seeing what he believed were marijuana plants growing inside pots on her porch, according to court documents.

Police found the defendant at the apartment on Grove City Road; but by the time they got there, the plants were missing from the porch.

Soon after, however, officers learned that the plants had been moved to a storage area in the apartment.

Hoak said all of the plants measured about 3 feet tall.

Fornelli told police she had no knowledge of the drugs, documents said, Kley corroborated her account.

Slippery Rock University police later assisted in a consent search of the apartment.

Inside, Hoak said, police turned up 4 ounces of suspected marijuana, two marijuana pipes, a scale and metal grinder, packaging materials and several morphine pills.

Kley was taken to the police station and interviewed. He later gave a written statement admitting the seized evidence was his, a police affidavit said, and Fornelli “had no knowledge of the drugs or paraphernalia.”