(Stillwater, Okla.) — The wife of a convicted murderer — who is serving a 30-year prison term in the Cimarron Correctional Facility — has been ordered to appear in court on March 3 on a charge of possessing marijuana in the Cushing prison.
Lynda Kay Tansimore, 54, of Edmond, remains free on a personal recognizance bond. A court date has not been set for her husband, James Leonard Tansimore, 38, who has been also charged with marijuana possession in the Cushing prison.
Cushing Police Detective Adam Harp was contacted on April 18 by the prison’s investigator Joseph Sebenick regarding a narcotics incident, according to an affidavit.
“Correctional Officer N. Gillespie was observing the visitation room via the camera from inside Central Command,” at 5:23 p.m. on April 5 when he saw “Lynda leave her seat during the visit, which is prohibited, and proceeded to slide an unknown item under the visitation door,” to her husband, the affidavit alleged.
After being notified, Shift Supervisor James Kelly “performed an unclothed search on Inmate Tansimore and discovered two separate bundles of an unknown substance wrapped in black electrical tape,” the affidavit alleged.
When Kelly opened the packages, he found about 36 grams of a substance believed to be marijuana and about 86 grams of another substance believed to be tobacco, the affidavit alleged.
During an interview with the inmate at 10:25 a.m. on April 18 in the segregation unit of the prison, the inmate asked the investigator if an Oklahoma City attorney had called him, which had not occurred, the affidavit said.
“Inmate Tansimore said that he did not want his wife, Lynda, to have to go down for this, that they have been married for 10 years,” the affidavit alleged.
“Inmate Tansimore told Investigator Sebenick that he wanted to make a deal, but said he has not been on this yard very long and that he needed to get back out on the yard in order to find out what has been going on,” the affidavit alleged.
“Inmate Tansimore acknowledged to Investigator Sebenick that he was working with a partner and was splitting what he was bringing into the facility. Inmate Tansimore was concerned about having his wife’s visitation privileges suspended,” the affidavit alleged.
“Investigator Sebenick told me that Lynda Tansimore had previously had her visitation privileges suspended on June 1, 2012, for introducing contraband (marijuana) into the facility at Lexington, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2012,” the Cushing police detective alleged in his affidavit.
“Investigator Sebenick said that criminal charges were not sought against Lynda or James Tansimore for that incident,” the affidavit said.
The Cushing police detective said a field test showed that one of the substances was marijuana, while the other substance was forwarded to the state crime bureau for analysis, according to the affidavit.
“I also reviewed the security footage from the visitation beween Lynda and James Tansimore. In the video you can see Lynda secreting an item underneath the door,” Harp alleged in his affidavit.
If convicted of possessing marijuana within a penal institution, Lynda Tansimore could be given a five-year prison term and a $1,000 fine, according to her charge.
Because of his criminal record, James Tansimore could be incarcerated for an additional 20 years and fined $1,000 if convicted of possessing marijuana in the prison.
Tansimore has been serving a 30-year prison term for second-degree murder in Caddo County since 1996, state Department of Corrections records show.
Two years earlier, Tansimore had been convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery in Oklahoma County, for which he was placed on five years’ probation in 1994, DOC records show.
