By Bay City News
A former San Quentin State Prison guard and two others pleaded guilty Sept. 16 to charges in a scheme to smuggle cellphones onto death row, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Former guard Keith Christopher, Isaiah Wells and Dustin Albini pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and bribery of a public official, according to federal prosecutors.
The trio, along with Tanisa Smith-Symes who pleaded guilty earlier to the same charges, carried out a plan to smuggle a total of 25 phones into the prison in 2019 and 2020 for a prisoner identified only as “Inmate 1” in court documents, prosecutors said in a news release Monday.
Smith-Symes was in a romantic relationship with the inmate who received the phones so he could sell them to other prisoners.
Prosecutors said she paid bribes of $5,000 and $6,500 to Albini and Wells and that Christopher collected the money and delivered the phones to the inmate.
The defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence and a $250,000 fine, and two counts of bribery of a public official, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Christopher and Wells are scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 13, 2023, and Albini and Smith-Symes are scheduled for status hearings on Sept. 15, 2023.
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