WILLIAMSON CO.—The re-sentencing of former Gallatin County sheriff Raymond Martin, set to commence this Thursday afternoon (November 29) in Benton, has taken a decided turn for the U.S. Government upon an October 30 discovery in his holding cell in Williamson County.
According to documents filed just days ago by U.S. Attorney James M. Cutchin, the man who prosecuted Martin in the 2010 federal jury trial, the trouble erupted shortly after Martin was placed in his cell at the Williamson County Detention Center, that gigantic and imposing structure up behind the courthouse that has areas designed for federal holding:
On October 30, 2012, defendant was returned to this district from a Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) facility in advance of his resentencing and placed in the Williamson County Jail by the United States Marshal’s Service (“USMS”). The USMS instructed jail officials to maintain defendant as a maximum custody inmate, meaning that he would be housed in a cell alone and subjected to routine and periodic searches of his cell and person. Prior to being put in his cell, it was thoroughly searched for contraband with negative results. At approximately 11:50 p.m., jail officers conducted a strip search of defendant and a “shakedown” of his cell. On a bunk, under defendant’s tooth paste, officers located 2 1⁄2 prescription-type pills. Hidden behind a roll of toilet paper, officers found a plastic bag containing 21 more prescription-type pills and approximately 8 grams of a white powder. The white powder was separately field tested by both jail officials and Illinois State Police Inspector Glenn Rountree and it tested positive for the presence of cocaine. Defendant admitted to jail officials that the substances found in the cell belonged to him. Photographs of the pills and powder are attached hereto as Exhibits 1-4.
Here are the exhibits, lovingly photographed no doubt by someone on the federal payroll:
Pills & powder
More pills
Even more pills
Ostensibly, the test that proved positive for cocaine.
Cutchin wrote:
According to USMS personnel, some of the pills were readily identifiable without laboratory testing. Of those, some were pills which had been prescribed to defendant while incarcerated, but others were not. In any event, federal inmates are not allowed to posses any type of medication; rather they are required take individual doses of the medication in the presence of medical staff.
Possession of cocaine by an inmate is a federal felony offense pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 1791(a)(2) and (d)(1)(A) punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to 10 years.5 Possession of non-controlled pharmaceuticals is likewise a federal offense pursuant to § 1791(a)(2) and (d)(1)(G). Thus, even if the white powder is not confirmed by laboratory testing to be cocaine, defendant’s possession of it and the pills constitutes new criminal conduct.
He’s asking for the judge, instead of reducing Martin’s sentence in some form, to re-impose the same sentence—life—as, he said in his brief, Martin’s “continued involvement in drug-related criminal activity that has occurred since his incarceration.”
Now, we’re not Raymond Martin fans any more than the next person, but: Does anyone else see how easily this all could have been planted on Raymondo, in a cell over which he had no control prior to arrival? This IS criminal Williamson county we’re talking about here. If it had been in Jackson County, I’d be more inclined to believe he really did bring it in with him. But this is just almost too handy-dandy to be authentic. Yet there it is.
What do you think: Planted, or brought in? And will we learn more when we go to the sentencing on Thursday?