Guard Smuggled Drugs Into Philly Prison For Inmate To Sell: Feds

PHILADELPHIA — A prison guard has been accused of smuggling drugs into the facility he worked at with the help of an inmate and the inmate's girlfriend, federal authorities said.

Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said Haneef Lawton, 33, a Philadelphia Corrections Officer, Kernard Murray, 36, an incarcerated inmate, and Charene Stallings, 42, Murray’s girlfriend, all of Philadelphia, were charged by with bribery, and conspiring to distribute narcotics and cell phones in a contraband smuggling scheme at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center.

Lawton, Murray, and Stalling are charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of federal program bribery, and distribution (and possession with intent to distribute) a controlled substance (Suboxone). Stallings is also charged with an additional count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base or crack.

Lawton is alleged to have agreed with Murray to smuggle contraband on multiple occasions into the prison in exchange for a series of bribes, authorities said.

Additionally, Murray is accused of arranged to sell the contraband to other inmates.

As part of the arrangement, Murray is charged with securing the agreement of his fellow inmate buyers to make payment arrangements with Stallings via cash and electronic peer-to-peer payment methods such as CashApp. In return for Lawton’s agreement to deliver the contraband to Murray, Murray and Stallings are alleged to have paid Lawton more than $11,400, also using CashApp.

Murray and Stallings are alleged to have trafficked as much as $69,000 worth of contraband into PICC.

If convicted, Lawton and Murray face a maximum possible sentence of 45 years’ imprisonment, 3 years of supervised release, and a $2 million fine. Stallings faces those same penalties and an additional potential mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment, 5 years supervised release, and a $10,000,000 fine for the cocaine base.