SUPERIOR COURT
One of four defendants in a case involving a contraband drop at the Jones County Law Enforcement Center entered a negotiated guilty plea that included his testimony against his codefendants.
Marshall Shane McInvale was in Jones County Superior Court March 23 to enter his plea. He received a sentence of 15 years for the offense of possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, with the first two years served in confinement. The remainder of sentence is to be serve on probation, and he received credit for time he has served from Aug. 16, 2022.
Chief Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammel accepted the plea. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Cara Fiore, and McInvale was represented by public defender Tom O’Donnell.
As part of plea negotiations, McInvale went on record to his participation in the contraband drop. He told the court that he was supposed to pick up the package, but he had kitchen duty and had to get another inmate to do it.
The defendant said he and the inmate who picked up the package knew what it contained.
When they were arrested in August of 2022, William Lynwood Cumbie and Samantha Thomas were charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, and McInvale and Justin Wiggins were charged with party to the crime of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.
A report of the incident leading to the charges by Jones County Sheriff’s Department Investigator John Simmons states that he was asked to follow up on information received about a contraband drop.
Simmons said Capt. Shane Moody asked him to listen to jail phone calls to determine who, when and where the drop was taking place. The investigator said he did a search of the phone records and found that Wiggins arranged for Thomas, his girlfriend, to drop contraband outside the jail. Once it was dropped, McInvale, who works in the kitchen, was to pick it up. When he could not get to it, Cumbie was to pick it up.
Investigator Barron Hall, Sgt. Travis Walker and Simmons watched the package from the employee parking lot, and Capt. Kenny Allen watched from across the street from the jail.
Simmons said Cumbie picked up the package and laid it in the trash can.
He said Cumbie agreed to speak with Hall and gave him the final location of the package. He said the package was photographed and opened in front of the inmate. Two cans of tobacco, two lighters and one pink push pop container with a quantity of what was believed to be methamphetamine were found in the package.
The four offenders were indicted by a Jones County Grand Jury Oct. 11, 2022. Cumbie, McInvale, and Wiggins were indicted for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and possession of a controlled substance by an inmate.
Thomas was indicted for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute.
