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| Inmate gets four years for smuggling |
| By Anchorage Daily News |
| Published: 12/29/2003 |
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During his June trial, Murville Lampkin admitted having drugs in his possession while serving a prison stretch, but he swore his friend Stephen Grizzell did not smuggle them into the Cook Inlet jail during a January 2002 visit -- no matter what the officers said they saw. The jury apparently believed him. They acquitted Grizzell but convicted Lampkin and, on Dec. 22, a Superior Court judge sentenced Lampkin to four years. Jurors found Lampkin, 31, guilty of two counts of misconduct involving oxycodone and marijuana tablets and one count of promoting contraband. Prosecutor Keri Brady said 25 months of the four years will be served at the same time as an unrelated drug sentence Lampkin owes the federal government. Lampkin and Grizzell were indicted after corrections officials said they saw Lampkin take three packets taped to Grizzell's back when the two hugged during a visit. According to testimony at the trial, Lampkin and Grizzell have been friends since high school and consider themselves brothers. Lampkin said the drugs found on him came from inside the jail, that he was making a routine in-house delivery from one prisoner to another. He said he did it all the time. Corrections said it had assigned several officers to monitor visits because it had noticed an increase in the amount of contraband in the institution. When officers spotted the packets in Lampkin's possession, he "keistered" them, meaning inserted them into his rectum. They were later recovered at a hospital. Testimony at the Lampkin-Grizzell trial offered a primer in illegal jailhouse commerce, a flourishing trade in which everyone apparently knows the prices, if not the costs. A single cigarette runs $5 and illegal drugs go for twice their street value, inmates told jurors. A 10-milligram hit of oxycodone costs $20. A chew of tobacco, which is now banned from Alaska jails, costs "a few bucks." Lampkin argued that he should be acquitted because inmates caught with drugs are usually punished by corrections without resorting to criminal charges. His lawyers said he was indicted to punish him for refusing to roll over on his friend. Grizzell, facing prolonged disciplinary action by the Fire Department, resigned before the trial. He attended the hearing as a spectator. |
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