Another Cell Phone Confiscated on Texas Death Row
That's the title of an AP report from Saturday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. LINK
Two cellphone SIM cards were found hidden in inmate Hank Skinner’s Bible during a routine search of his cell Friday afternoon at the Polunsky Unit, near Livingston.
"They suspected he had a cellphone that he would not admit to," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Criminal Justice. "They escorted him to the unit infirmary where they conducted an X-ray and confirmed he was in possession of a cell phone."
Skinner, 46, has been on Death Row since 1995 for a triple slaying in Pampa in the Panhandle.
It was the second seizure of contraband from an inmate since a three-week-long lockdown of all state prisons ended Wednesday.
Hours after the lockdown ended, prison officials found a cellphone, a charger, a makeshift weapon and what appeared to be marijuana in the cell of another Death Row inmate. The inmate, Mark Stroman, 39, was condemned for killing a Dallas-area convenience-store clerk during a robbery.
The lockdown and searches were ordered last month after Death Row inmate Richard Tabler made threatening calls to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, using a cellphone that had been smuggled in.
The Austin American-Statesman's Mike Ward, who broke the original story, posted more on the Postcards from the Lege blog, "Officials say inmate threatened lawmaker, reporter after cell phone bust."
Richard Lee Tabler, the convicted killer who made headlines last month for chatting up a state senator from his death row cell on a smuggled cell phone, has threatened to kill the lawmaker and a reporter who broke the story, officials confirmed today.
Prison investigators said Tabler, 29, wrote a letter to them outlining the threats to state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that oversees prison operations, and this reporter.
Inspector General John Moriarty confirmed the letter, and said the written threats are being investigated.
“We’re taking this very seriously,” he said, noting that imprisoned convicts could possibly have someone on the outside carry out their threats.
After receiving the letter, investigators raided Tabler’s death row cell at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston and seized a variety of items, Moriarty said.
Threatening a witness in a criminal case is a felony crime, officials said. Complicating any prosecution is the fact that Tabler already is under a death sentence, officials said.
Earlier coverage is here.
Comments