Attempt to smuggle phones, heroin into San Quentin foiled

A woman visiting a San Quentin Death Row inmate appeared to be pregnant, but instead of carrying a child she was holding a helping of peach cobbler, 18 cell phones and 3 ounces of heroin under her garments, prison officials said.

Teri Nichols, 47, a teacher’s assistant from Los Angeles, was arrested on Thursday in the prison visitor’s room during her meeting with condemned murderer Bruce Millsap, 50.

Guards became suspicious when they noticed resealable plastic bags in a nearby trashcan that Nichols allegedly used to smuggle in a helping of peach cobbler and greens to her friend, Millsap, a convicted serial murderer. They confronted Nichols, who handed over the phones and drugs, along with 18 phone chargers, that she had hidden inside a beanie cap beneath her clothes. The beanie was attached with a string to her bra and designed to make her look pregnant, officials said.

“It was very, very sophisticated,” said Lt. Samuel Robinson, a prison spokesman. “We’re still trying to figure out how she beat our metal detector.”

Millsap, 50, was convicted in 2000 of eight murders in Southern California, including the robbery and murder of two Los Angeles County armored-car guards, one in Long Beach in 1995 and the other in Carson in 1996.

Millsap had eaten the smuggled food and was apparently just about to receive the other contraband when guards interceded, Robinson said.

“He got the cobbler and greens,” Robinson said. “You got to get your cobbler and greens before you get down to business.”

In the visitor’s room, Robinson said, visitors and inmates sit across from each other at tables and are allowed physical contact. Guards are posted nearby.

Robinson said the phones were intended for resale inside the prison, where each one is worth $1,000 or so.

Nichols was jailed in San Rafael and is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 13. If convicted, she faces four years in prison, officials said.