We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
ARRESTS IN USP ATWATER STAFF DEATH CASE
I reported last week on the death of a BOP mailroom supervisor at USP Atwater, apparently from contact with a drug-laden document sent to an inmate by legal mail.
While the toxicology has not been completed, authorities last week arrested Jamar Jones, a USP Atwater inmate, Stephanie Ferreira, his girlfriend in Indiana former drug felon Jermen Rudd III.
The 30-page arrest complaint, rich with detail, recounts an investigation worthy of CSI Miami. Evidence included months of recorded phone calls and email between the inmate and the others, surveillance footage from a St Louis post office, linking the girlfriend’s Evansville, Indiana, computer to the Postal Service online tracking site, and even St. Louis police license plate reader data to place the third guy in the vicinity of the post office when the package was sent.
The trio, all of whom are being held without bond (Jones, of course, was already in custody), were indicted yesterday on conspiracy to distribute drugs (21 USC 846). Jones was also indicted on an 18 USC § 1791(a)(2) and (b)(2) charge for inmate obtaining or attempting to obtain a controlled substance, and Stephanie and Jermen were indicted on the same 1791(a)(2) and (b)(2) offenses for attempting to provide an inmate with a controlled substance.
Despite press speculation that the document was impregnated with fentanyl, the indictment charges only that the defendants tried to smuggle “a detectable amount of AB-6 CHMINACA and MDMB-4en-PINACA, Schedule I controlled substances, commonly referred to as ‘Spice’.”
The indictment also does not allege that the defendants caused the death of BOP mailroom supervisor Marc Fischer, which suggests that the toxicology reports have not been completed yet.
Criminal Complaint, United States v. Jones, Case No 1:24-cr-209 (ED Cal, ECF 1, August 19, 2024)
Indictment, United States v. Jones, Case No 1:24-cr-209 (ED Cal, ECF 11, August 29, 2024)
– Thomas L. Root