Two Lauderdale County residents are behind bars at the Sunflower County Jail after a weekend traffic stop revealed a load of alcohol, tobacco products and other items including a handgun that were reportedly on their way to the state penitentiary at Parchman.
On Saturday, Indianola police officers and investigators working in conjunction with the Sunflower County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Jomaritoes Burtin, 32, 4107 58th St., Meridian and Miranda Leigh Hillhouse, 34, 3446 US Highway 11/80, Toomsuba, Miss.
According to Indianola police, they are going to be charged with attempting to introduce contraband into a Mississippi Department of Corrections facility.
Burtin is reportedly a convicted felon, so in addition he will be charged with felony possession of a weapon. The two were scheduled to go before the judge on Wednesday for their initial appearance.
Law enforcement officials apparently received a tip that someone was attempting to bring narcotics onto the grounds of Parchman and that they would be passing through Indianola. Chief Edrick Hall said Inverness Chief of Police Adrian Gooden contacted him with the information and said that the product should be close to entering the Indianola city limits. Hall said, “Just really fearing for time and trying to make sure we prevent it from getting there, we contacted the sheriff’s department based off the information we got from Inverness and made the decision to try to intercept the package here.”
Hall said they took steps because at the time they were not sure who they needed to contact at Parchman.
Sheriff Department Chief Deputy Marvin Flowers said, “It was a great effort between both agencies, everything went down real good, everybody came out safe. I feel really great about how we worked together on this past Saturday to apprehend these guys.” He thanked the IPD for calling them in to assist.
Hall added, “You would have thought that we had been working on this for three weeks the way it went down. It went just that smooth.”
However, he said one of the suspects did attempt to run,
“(But) because we worked well together, he never had a chance.”
Hall said based on the information received they were looking for narcotics, but what they found was a large stash of tobacco, tobacco products, alcohol and other items considered as contraband including the handgun.
Hall said he was grateful for the help given by the sheriff’s office and alluded to how the situation could have gone without adequate help, “You’re talking about two people in a vehicle with a gun,” he said. “And who knows what would have happened if this firearm had gotten on there (Parchman), said Hall, “Had that gotten on the grounds of Parchman it could have hurt one of my fellow brothers or sisters in blue.” He added, “We’re really excited to prevent that firearm from getting onto the prison ground.”
Hall also applauded the foresight of Inverness chief Gooden for passing the information on to him. “With the information that he had and his staff being so small, he just saw it important to let it come on to the next city over, to where he felt like the resources would have been a little better, so I commend him, I think he made a wise decision,” Hall said.
He said the items were likely purchased from different locations across the state with the final destination slated for the state facility. “We were able to recover one receipt in the vehicle, but that receipt only had $100 worth of tobacco on it, so we feel like they went to multiple places.”
As of Tuesday, Hall said they were still interviewing the suspects and investigating the incident. “But so far everything that we received from the Inverness police department has been accurate to this point.”
Gooden has been kept up to date on everything. Hall said he has let him know the information he relayed was accurate.
“Six figures at least, a minimum of $150,000,” is Hall’s estimate of the value of the goods if they had gotten onto the prison grounds, and he made it clear that was way above the items’ cost.
Hall said they have called in the Parchman superintendent and his investigators to work along with his investigators on the case. “They’ll be more aware and knowledgeable about this information than we would,” said Hall. He explained that the Parchman team works with this kind of situation a lot more often than his officers.
Investigator Regina Simpson is handling the case for IPD.
