Two Arkansans are accused of trying to smuggle drugs to a jail inmate using a Bible, authorities say.
In a news release, the Baxter County sheriff's office said a man came to the county jail Aug. 1 to deliver the book to 45-year-old Mikel Blaine Short. The Bible was taken by a jail supervisor, who reportedly found drugs, including suspected methamphetamine, marijuana and tobaccos inside the book's binding in vacuum-sealed bags.
Using video from the Baxter County jail, authorities were able to identify the man who took the Bible to the detention center as Kevin Eugene Burch, 31, the release said. According to the sheriff's office, further investigation revealed that Burch and Short planned the crime with a third person, 28-year-old Cynthia Marie Piatt.
Piatt was arrested Tuesday at a home on Baxter County Road 508, authorities said. While investigators were at her home, she reportedly gave 25.1 grams of meth to a 17-year-old girl to hide, but the handoff was discovered, and the drugs were seized.
Piatt was booked into the Baxter County jail Tuesday afternoon and faces multiple charges, including furnishing prohibited articles, two counts of delivery of methamphetamine, conspiracy to furnish prohibited articles and unlawful use of communications device. She is being held in lieu of $75,000 bond and has a court date scheduled for Thursday.
Short, who was being held at the jail while space opened up at the Arkansas Department of Correction, now faces additional charges of conspiracy to furnish prohibited articles and unlawful use of communications device. He also has a court appearance scheduled for Thursday.
The news release states that Burch, who has been booked into the Baxter County jail 20 times since 2004, has not been arrested and remains at large.
