Suppose corn row dude(hereafter referred to as CRD) IS a drug dealer, maybe RAT's. What better way to divert suspicion than to call out someone who could be proven to be a criminal (selling drugs), because then THAT person is the shady character. If RAT saw this guy at the station, they CRD wouldn't have an alibi and RAT would know that.
Pointing out a pot dealer is weak for Nelson County, not when you compare it to what we're looking at, abduction/worse. It's not like this person is a drug trafficker, receiving and moving large amounts of drugs around the state and across state lines, head of regional MS13 or something HUGE like that. Rest assured, local LE pick their battles in this small community. Lots of people, who have reputable employment and are otherwise well-thought-of members of the community, sell pot as a part time gig in the county. If CRD exists, he's known and has been contacted. In Nelson County, selling pot doesn't necessarily make a person a shady character.
ETA: I hate to sound like a broken record, but CRD aside, what this person needs to explain is why he's under the microscope for the disappearance of a young woman again. All those people who he fingered in the Orange county case, the two guys, the girl blah blah, at the end of the day, this person with a rap sheet as long as the river Nile was the one who remained under the microscope,
and here we go again. More significantly, CRD aside,
this person admits that AM's physical person was in his dwelling. That's probably what the evidence will show, so he's got that story lined up, but she can't have been there alone, so CRD, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny or whoever needs to have been there with her. Don't know if evidence shows that Samantha Clark was in his dwelling in Orange. That's what's important here, the fact that AM was in his trailer and for his purposes, she can't have been there alone.