Five enter guilty pleas in inmate-led drug trafficking

Five Miami, Oklahoma-area residents admitted this week to participating in a drug trafficking ring led by an Oklahoma State Penitentiary inmate.

Rachael Georgia Danley, 31; Ashton Chase Manicom, 23; Jeremy Dallas Mann, 30; Matthew Ray Stroud, 36; and Todd Allen Pryer, 46, all entered guilty pleas in Tulsa federal court to various drug-related counts.

Attorneys for the alleged leader of the drug ring, Slint Kenneth Tate, 35, and his girlfriend, Robin Tracy Zumwalt, 36, said this week that plea negotiations were continuing with prosecutors.

“This prosecution highlights the importance of federal-state task forces,” U.S. Attorney Trent Shores said. “Working together, we exposed a drug conspiracy that was operating from within the walls of a maximum-security Oklahoma prison by means of contraband cell phones in the hands of inmates.”

A federal grand jury alleged in its Sept. 6 indictment that the seven defendants, led by Tate, conspired to purchase methamphetamine and marijuana in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas for resale in the Miami area during 2015 and 2016.

The grand jury alleged Tate ran the drug distribution ring from his cell at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester from March 2015 through May 2016 using smuggled cell phones.

Tate has been serving a life-without-parole sentence after pleading guilty in 2001 to firstdegree murder in the July 1999 shooting death of Vernie Milford Roberts, a Delaware County reserve deputy.

Roberts, 65, and his wife, Betty Jean, were taking Tate, then 16, from the Delaware County jail to the Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center when Tate overpowered Roberts and shot him twice.

Stroud was the latest of the five to plead guilty. Stroud admitted Thursday in a plea agreement with prosecutors to one count of using a cell phone to traffic drugs. Prosecutors agreed to drop a drug conspiracy count as part of the plea.

Stroud faces a maximum prison term of four years in prison when he is sentenced June 14.

On Wednesday, Pryer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to trafficking drugs. Prosecutors agreed to drop two counts against Pryer of using a cell phone to sell meth.

Prosecutors said Pryer played a minimal role in the drug conspiracy.

“He was primarily a user and enforcer and watcher of the house,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon Cozzoni said Wednesday, referring to a Miami residence where illegal drugs were stored.

Pryer is scheduled to be sentenced June 13.

Manicom and Mann on Tuesday both pleaded guilty to one drug conspiracy count as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that called for the dismissal of remaining charges. Manicom faced seven other counts, while Mann faced five.

Manicom’s plea deal calls for him to receive a 10-year prison sentence.

Manicom admitted to agreeing with Tate and others to pick up methamphetamine in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and other locations and deliver it to Miami during a period after March 2015 to May 2016.

The statutory prison sentence for a drug conspiracy conviction ranges from 10 years to life.

Mann, meanwhile, also pleaded guilty to a single drug conspiracy count, but without benefit of an agreed prison term.

While working with the ring, Mann admitted to making drug runs to Oklahoma City and Tulsa to pick up methamphetamine for delivery in the Miami area.

Both Manicom and Mann are scheduled to be sentenced June 12.

On Monday, Danley admitted to talking on a cell phone with Tate about helping collect funds he needed to buy about nine pounds of methamphetamine.

Danley could face up to four years in federal prison when she is sentenced June 11.

The admission by Danley was part of a plea agreement with prosecutors to admit guilt to one of five counts in a criminal indictment.