Inmate found with contraband
Published 5:44 pm Tuesday, September 5, 2017
On Thursday night at approximately 10:30 p.m., an employee at Decatur County Ambulance observed an occupied vehicle sitting behind the building. The vehicle pulled off, but due to the suspicious nature of the vehicle and the time of night, the employee made a call to E911 asking for an officer to investigate.
Officers Chris Jackson and Pat Bryant arrived on scene and walked around the outside of the EMS building. While walking around, the officers located a blue tobacco package lying on the ground next to a block storage building. Officers continued to search the property and located 13 additional tobacco packages, as well as a plastic bag hanging from the top of the block building. Inside the bag were several clear plastic zipper baggies and additional tobacco packages.
Officers became aware that the storage buildings located near the EMS building contained equipment that inmates use for work detail. CID Investigators were called, and suspected that an inmate would pick up the bag on Friday morning. In order to catch the inmate in the act, investigators advised the officers to leave the bag in its present location.
On Friday morning at 7:30am, CID Investigators Larry Funderburke, Mark Esquivel and Chris Avery arrived at EMS and waited out of sight for the DCCI inmate bus to arrive. About an hour later, the bus pulled up to the storage buildings and
Investigators watched as an inmate exited the bus, looked around, and made his way to where the bag containing tobacco was located. He took the bag and made his way back to the bus. Funderburke, Esquivel and Avery moved in after seeing the pickup, boarded the bus and found Jamarcus Antonio Printup, 30, in possession of the bag.
Investigation continued on Friday afternoon when Funderburke, Esquivel and Avery contacted DCCI Warden Gordon Screen Jr. and asked to search the locker belonging to Printup. Inside the locker were baggies containing 50 grams of methamphetamine. Printup was charged with Items Prohibited for Possession by Inmates and trafficking Methamphetamine.