Two Federal Inmates Sentenced

US Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that Quentin Tucker, age 29, and Devon Philips, age 36, who were charged with conspiracy to obtain a prohibited object, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge John E. Simko on June 11, 2012, for sentencing. Both sentenced to 6 months in prison to be served consecutively to the sentences they are currently serving.

Tucker and Philips were indicted for conspiracy to obtain a prohibited object (tobacco), and Tucker was indicted for escape by a federal grand jury on December 6, 2011. They both pled guilty to the conspiracy charge, and the escape charge against Tucker was dismissed.

Sometime before August 28, 2011, Tucker and Philips, both inmates of the Yankton Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, formed an agreement to smuggle tobacco into the prison camp. On August 28, 2011, Tucker jumped the prison camp’s fence, retrieved the tobacco from a pre-arranged location outside of the prison camp, and brought it back into the prison camp. Philips acted as a look-out for the transaction.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant US Attorney Amy Koopmann.

The defendants were remanded to the custody of the US Bureau of Prisons.