Sallisaw Man Faces Jail Contraband Charge

A Sallisaw inmate had a felony charge added to his case Sept. 27 after his alleged scheme to bring contraband into the jail facility was discovered.

On Sept. 24, the report reveals, a jail supervisor doing a check of the jail’s exterior discovered a makeshift device lying on the ground. The device consisted of inmate toothbrushes tied together with a hook on the end. No other items were found outside the jail.

On Sept. 27, a pair of sheriff’s deputies examined the site where the device was found and noticed a 4-inch-long hole in the bottom of the jail’s exterior concrete wall that went all the way through to cell number 67 in the jail’s South Pod. The deputies then entered the jail facility to investigate.

According to a police report, when deputies approached cell 67, Raymond Gillispie, 32, was caught by jail personnel trying to flush something down the toilet in the cell.

When the deputies approached cell 67 to begin a search, Raymond Gillispie, 32, of Sallisaw was spotted flushing something down the toilet. The officers removed the inmates assigned to that cell to begin a more in-depth search.

That search revealed a hole on the bottom of a cell wall that had been dug out all the way through to the outside of the facility. Inside the cell, deputies found a half-full can of Kayak Wintergreen dipping tobacco, tobacco inside a napkin, tobacco inside a glove and food bowl and three and a half white pills.

When the deputies finished the search, Gillispie reportedly approached them and said he was the only inmate in the cell involved in the scheme. He told deputies he used wire hangers to pull contraband through the hole in the wall from the outside. He said the pills were Trazodone and were brought in by another inmate. Gillispie said he gave the inmate food in return for the pills.

Gillispie pleaded not guilty Oct. 2 to the felony charge of bringing contraband into a jail or penal institution, which is punishable by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for up to five years, a fine of up to $1,000 or both.

Laura Brown, KXMX Staff Writer

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