Department of Justice Seal Department of Justice

United States Attorney A. Courtney Cox

                                Southern District of Illinois                                  

       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                     
CONTACT: RANDY MASSEY

         WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2007                                                               
PHONE: (618) 628-37 00   

        HTTP://WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/ILS/                                                                                                                     
FAX:   (618) 628-3730

 

 

INMATE AND NEOGA WOMAN PLEAD GUILTY TO CONSPIRING TO SMUGGLE MARIHUANA INTO THE UNITED STATES PENITENTIARY AT MARION

 

Randy G. Massey, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on November 28, 2007, SHAWN A. FINLEY, age 25, who is an inmate at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, pled guilty in United States District Court in East St. Louis to offenses relating to an attempt to smuggle marihuana into the penitentiary in May 2007. FINLEY pled guilty to one count of conspiring to provide an inmate with contraband and one count of possessing contraband in a federal prison. His co-defendant, BETTY ANN MARIE CONNER, age 23 of Neoga, Illinois, pled guilty to the conspiracy count and one count of providing contraband to an inmate, on November 15, 2007. FINLEY and CONNER were charged with the offenses on October 2, 2007, by a Federal Grand Jury sitting in Benton.

According to the factual bases supporting the guilty pleas, in early May, FINLEY and another inmate devised a plan to smuggle marihuana into the prison to sell to other inmates. FINLEY recruited CONNER to smuggle two balloons containing marihuana into the prison and pass them to him during a contact visit. USP-Marion staff members observed CONNER pass the marihuana to FINLEY and were able to seize the marihuana from him.

FINLEY and CONNER face a penalty on each count of up to 5 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release of 3 years to follow any term of incarceration imposed. In addition, any sentence imposed on FINLEY will be required to be imposed consecutively to the 262 month sentence for conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine which he was serving at the time he committed these offenses.

Sentencing for CONNER is set for February 29, 2008, and for FINLEY on March 21, 2008. Both sentencings will take place at the United States District Courthouse in East St. Louis.

Investigation into the case was conducted by agents of the Marion office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys James M. Cutchin.

 

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