California death row guard charged with smuggling contraband

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A prison guard and two others have been charged with a scheme to smuggle contraband cell phones into California’s death row, authorities said.Keith Christopher, a 37-year-old corrections officer at San Quentin State Prison, is charged with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud using interstate wires, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.A judge in San Francisco Wednesday, Sept. 8, appointed a public defender to represent Christopher and released him on $50,000 bond, prosecutors said.Isaiah Wells, from Tracy, and Tanisa Smith-Symes of Las Vegas, face the same charges. Wells also was released on bond Wednesday while Smith-Symes had a scheduled court hearing Thursday in Las Vegas.It wasn’t immediately clear whether they had attorneys
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