(Stillwater, Okla.) — An ex-convict jailed on $500,000 bail on a robbery charge has been given a five-year prison term for conspiring with his sister to have their mother deliver a Bible containing methamphetamine for him into the Payne County Jail.
Jailers discovered the methamphetamine hidden in the spine of the Bible, an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Gregg Russell said.
“It is standard operating procedures for jail staff to check all properties for contraband before giving the property to inmates,” the affidavit said.
Jason Jermaine Gray, 35, of Stillwater, who has been jailed for nearly 18 months, was scheduled to stand trial this week in connection with the theft of a cell phone from an Oklahoma State University student near the campus in January 2014, court records show.
Gray was originally accused with another ex-convict of robbing the student, but after Gray was charged with conspiracy in the methamphetamine jail incident, he accepted a plea bargain in both cases for two concurrent five-year prison terms followed by five years of probation, court records show.
Gray pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit a felony in the methamphetamine jail incident, and also to a reduced charge of being an accessory to theft from a person at night, as well as concealing the stolen cell phone from the OSU student in the January 2014 case, court records show.
Gray had been in the Payne County Jail for more than a year when jailers found methamphetamine in the spine of a Bible on March 2 that had been brought in for him by his mother, an affidavit alleged.
When jailers showed the Payne County deputy a rolled-up piece of paper wrapped in clear tape, Russell examined the contents, a white powder-like substance that tested positive as being methamphetamine, the affidavit said.
A sheriff’s employee who “takes in the property that people drop off for the inmates and controls visitation for the jail,” told the deputy that Gray’s mother dropped the Bible off for him, the affidavit said.
The employee thought it was odd that Gray’s mother dropped off a Bible and thought she was acting odd, the affidavit said.
When Gray’s mother pulled the Bible out of a bag and fanned the book open to see if anything was inside the pages, she said, “There’s nothing in there,” the affidavit said.
The employee didn’t find anything inside the pages before placing the Bible in the jail’s box with Jason Gray’s name on it as standard operating procedure, the affidavit said.
After the jailers found methamphetamine in the Bible’s spine, the sheriff’s deputy examined surveillance footage showing Gray’s mother in the courthouse, the affidavit said. The sheriff’s deputy then obtained the phone numbers of Gray’s mother and Gray’s sister, the affidavit said.
“I then searched the two phone numbers in the jail’s phone system and found where Jason Gray calls the number (for his sister) almost on a daily basis from the phone located in his jail cell,” the deputy wrote in his affidavit.
In the recorded conversations, Gray’s sister said, “I’ll have Mom bring it onto you,” the affidavit alleged.
Gray asked, “What is it? Bible?” to which his sister answered “yup,” the affidavit alleged.
Gray asked, “Is Momma going to bring it in?” to which his sister answered, “She going to have to. I always bring it in. They know me,” the affidavit alleged.
Gray’s sister asked their mother, “Mom, can you take something in for him in the morning?” to which she agreed, the affidavit alleged.
Although the deputy requested arrest warrants for both Gray’s mother and his sister, no charges were filed on Gray’s mother, court records show
Gray’s sister, Lashonda Renae Davis, 32, of Stillwater, who was already on probation for a drug conviction, was charged with conspiracy to commit a felony in the methamphetamine jail incident on which she was scheduled to appear in court his week.
In October 2013, Davis had been given a six-month jail term followed by nine and one-half years of probation for possessing cocaine in Stillwater, court records show. Davis was ordered to have random drug tests and a substance abuse evaluation as well as follow-up, court records show.
In that cocaine case from 2013, Davis was also ordered to pay the cost of her incarceration, as well as $1,550 in fines and assessments, and to perform 100 hours of community service, court records show.
Davis also had been charged with making a false declaration of ownership in pawn regarding a Sony PlayStation 4 that had been stolen in a Stillwater burglary in July 2014, a felony case on which she was also scheduled to appear in court his week.
Her brother, Jason Gray, had been released from prison in 2013 after serving about six years of a 10-year sentence for drug possession with intent to distribute in 2005 in Bryan County, state Department of Corrections records show.
Gray had also been given a concurrent 10-year prison term for robbery in 1999 in Bryan County after his probation was revoked in 2007, DOC records show.
Gray had also served about four years of a five-year prison term for second-degree burglary in 1998 after he was found in violation of his probation in Bryan County, DOC records show.
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