Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Homer Bryson said corrections officials confiscated more than 7,000 cell phones from inmates last year.
September 25, 2015
ATLANTA — Twelve people were indicted this week on suspicion of having roles in crime rings that the authorities said relied on cellphones that were smuggled into Georgia prisons and allowed inmates to order killings, sell drugs to customers hundreds of miles away and try to steal identities.
To law enforcement officials here, the indictments were troubling reminders of how cellphones have complicated and deepened their struggle against prison contraband, which they said can produce danger well beyond the walls of state penitentiaries.
“Prisons serve to punish and to rehabilitate convicted offenders and to deter crime, not to enable it,” John A. Horn, the United States attorney in Atlanta, said Thursday. “The indictments today allege that, after being placed in prison to protect society from their ongoing criminal behavior, these inmates capitalized on the ready access to cellphones and other contraband to further victimize citizens outside prisons.”
A federal grand jury returned the charges Tuesday, and the indictments were unsealed Thursday. The indictments named, among others, seven current or former inmates and two former prison workers. It was not immediately clear whether any of those charged had lawyers in their federal cases.
In the indictments, officials described cellphone smuggling operations at two state prisons, one near Atlanta and another near the Florida border. At both prisons, the indictment said, inmates used phones to conduct criminal activity elsewhere.
From the Valdosta State Prison near Florida, for instance, a convicted murderer oversaw “a network of illegal drug suppliers and couriers,” the federal authorities said, and used an illicit cellphone to promote that clandestine business.
“We have good prices and good product,” the inmate, Donald H. Hinley, said in a recorded telephone call, the indictment said.
In another instance, the federal authorities said, Mr. Hinley called an inmate at another facility and sought the killing of a prisoner who was cooperating with prosecutors in a case that involved Mr. Hinley’s girlfriend. He also, according to the indictment, ordered the inmate, if he was released from prison, to “shoot every one” of the expected witness’s family members.
At the Phillips State Prison, the authorities said, two inmates used light fixtures in their cells to charge cellphones that could be used to access Facebook or buy shoes online. One of the inmates, Mims M. Morris Jr., a convicted murderer, was accused of using a cellphone and posing as a representative of a credit card company to steal personal information.
The indictments reflect a small part of the conundrum facing corrections officials in an era of Internet-enabled cellphones that inmates can obtain seemingly through creativity and bribery.
“Nothing is impeding their criminal enterprise activity that was occurring prior to getting incarcerated,” said J. Britt Johnson, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Atlanta. He then listed serious crimes he said inmates had committed while imprisoned.
The current GDOC inmates who were charged are:
· Donald Howard Hinley, 51, was an inmate at Valdosta State Prison prior to his arrest, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine; one count of distributing at least 50 grams of methamphetamine; and three counts of distributing methamphetamine.
· Mims Morris, 24, who was an inmate at Phillips State Prison prior to his arrest, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana; two counts of conspiring to commit wire fraud; two counts of committing wire fraud; and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
· Johnathan Silvers, a/k/a “Turtle,” 28, who was an inmate at Phillips State Prison prior to his arrest, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana.
· Adam Smith, 30, who was an inmate at Phillips State Prison prior to his arrest, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana.
The paroled GDOC inmates who were charged are:
· Ruben Ruiz, a/k/a “Flaco” and “Scrappy,” 34, of Gainesville, Georgia, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine. Ruiz was paroled in March 2014 from GDOC custody after serving a 10-year sentence.
· William A. Matthews, a/k/a “Two Young,” 30, of Union City, Georgia, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine; and one count of distributing methamphetamine. Matthews was paroled in August 2014 from GDOC custody after serving a 10-year sentence.
· Kansas Bertollini, a/k/a “Guido,” 35, of Kathleen, Georgia, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine; and one count of distributing at least 50 grams methamphetamine. Bertollini was paroled in June 2014 from GDOC custody after serving an 11-year sentence.
The other individuals who were charged are:
· Tiffany Allen, 27, of Cleveland, Georgia, has been charged with two counts of conspiring to commit wire fraud; and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
· Monique Kinney, a/k/a Monique Reed, 26, of Augusta, Georgia. Kinney was charged with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud; and one count of aggravated identity theft.
· Opal Marie Hayden, 58, of Acworth, Georgia, has been charged with one count of conspiring to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine; and three counts of distributing methamphetamine.
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