Ex-prison guard admits smuggling phones, pot, gun into Folsom facility

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Wednesday, Mar. 31, 2010

A California correctional officer has pleaded guilty to three felonies for bringing marijuana, cell phones and a gun into California State Prison, Sacramento.

Domingo Gardea Garcia, 40, was paid $1,500 by an inmate to smuggle cell phones into the prison in Folsom, while a woman paid him $1,300 more to bring the devices into the maximum-security lockup, according to court records.

Garcia entered his plea March 24 in Sacramento Superior Court. He faces a one-year county jail term with a promise of no state prison time at his April 26 sentencing in front of Judge Gary E. Ransom.

The nine-year veteran officer was placed on administrative leave after his Nov. 2 arrest.

Spokeswoman Terry Thornton of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Tuesday that Garcia resigned Jan. 26, six days after he was served with dismissal papers.

Thornton said cases such as Garcia's are rare.

"We have more than 60,000 employees in the department, and nearly all of them do a very good job at what they do," Thornton said. "However, the department has zero tolerance of staff misconduct."

Garcia could not be reached Tuesday. His public defender, Addie Louise Young, declined to comment.

In his guilty plea, Garcia admitted that he supplied marijuana to somebody in prison and conspired to distribute cell phones to convicts. The court papers showed that Garcia had 19 separate written communications with inmates, that he kept pay-owe sheets and that he had nine cell phones at his house when he was arrested.

Corrections officials say they have confiscated thousands of cell phones in recent years from prisoners who use them to commit crimes.

Prisoners and prisoner rights activists say inmates use the phones to cut down on their families' collect-call bills.

On his third count, Garcia admitted that he brought a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic handgun, 50 rounds of ammunition and two knives onto prison grounds. Deputy District Attorney Steve Secrest said Garcia told investigators the gun was his personal weapon and that he forgot to take it out of his car after he went shooting with it.

According to the prosecutor, Garcia also said the state employee furloughs had hit him hard and that he smuggled items to make some extra cash. Correctional officers have not been furloughed like other state workers, but they have had their pay docked while they "bank" the time for up to two years.

Thornton said the furloughs are irrelevant "to (Garcia's) misconduct."

"It sounds like an excuse on his part," the corrections spokeswoman said.

Court papers identified one of the inmates who worked with Garcia as Michael Narvell Chisom, a murderer from Madera County, who is doing life with no chance of parole. The other, according to court records and prison officials, was Jonathan Marzette "Ken" Hanks, of Fresno County, who is serving a four-year term for possession of cocaine for sale.

Hanks since has been transferred to Salinas Valley State Prison, and a transfer is pending on Chisom, Thornton said. Hanks also got hit with a 30-day loss of credit for good behavior.

Deputy DA Secrest said Hanks befriended Garcia at the facility and enticed the officer to bring in the marijuana and cell phones. When prison officials caught Hanks with the contraband, the inmate fingered Garcia as his connection, Secrest said.

The court papers identified a woman named Maureen Nezart as the outsider who also paid Garcia to smuggle in the phones. Nezart could not be reached Tuesday. Secrest said she will not be prosecuted because the only evidence against her came from Garcia's statements.

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