Girl smuggles contraband into jail for boyfriend, is charged

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — An inmate at Gallup McKinley Adult Detention Center faces new charges after allegedly coercing his girlfriend into smuggling pot and cigarettes into the jail March 12. The girl, who had no prior criminal record, faces three felony charges.

Eric Manuelito, 26, had completed almost nine months on March 12 of his yearlong sentence for a 2008 drug-trafficking conviction. He is accused of conspiring with Heather Henry, 21, to smuggle into the jail an ounce of marijuana and two packs of cigarettes by having the girl hide them under a bench inside a magistrate courtroom, according to the criminal complaint.

Henry visited Manuelito March 10, and like all visits at GMADC, it was recorded. The video shows Manuelito holding to the glass a piece of paper, later discovered to be a map instructing Henry where to place the cigarettes and marijuana, which were found wrapped in black tape and taped to the underside of a bench on the inmate-holding side of Magistrate Judge John Carey’s courtroom.

A courtroom bystander witnessed 18-year-old inmate Daniel Nieto take hold of the clandestine package, and reported it to a detective. Nieto, who was charged in early March in connection with a slew of burglaries, later confessed to aiding Manuelito in exchange for $60 in commissary, according to the complaint.

Henry faces three fourth-degree felonies: attempt to commit a felony; conspiracy to commit a crime; and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. She is being held on $15,000 cash or surety bond. Prior to March 12, her prior offenses included only traffic violations — two of which were dismissed — and for the third traffic violation, she was found not guilty.