HOFFMAN — A Gaston County woman is accused of trying to throw contraband over the fence at Richmond Correctional Institution.
Deputies were dispatched Saturday to the prison on McDonald Church Road where staff told them they had seen a car drive by several times, then pull across the street to the side of the road the prison is on, according to a press release from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
Some of the prison staff reportedly suspected that the driver, 36-year-old Mandy Lynn Parsons of Gastonia, was trying to throw contraband over the prison fence.
They reportedly approached the vehicle and Parsons allegedly handed them a bag and drove off.
The bag reportedly contained two bottles filled with tobacco, a marijuana cigarette, a cellphone with a charging cable and a handwritten note.
Parsons was reportedly found at a nearby gas station and arrested.
She is charged with: possession of a controlled substance on jail or prison premises; simple possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance; first-degree trespassing; and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Parsons was booked into the Richmond County Jail where she is being held on a $25,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court March 31.
Online records show Parsons has no other pending charges.
Records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction show Parsons is currently on probation, having received a 24-month suspended sentence in August of 2021 after being convicted on a felony charge of possessing stolen goods and one misdemeanor count each of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance and possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
This isn’t the first time drugs have been tossed over the fence at the prison.
In September 2021, prison staff reportedly found a football stuffed with tobacco, marijuana and a tennis ball containing methamphetamine.
The prison was renamed last October from Morrison Correctional Institution.
