An inmate now faces additional charges after he allegedly was caught smuggling narcotics into the Bay County Jail via methamphetamine-drizzled drawings of the sun, according to arrest records.
Two other people also have been arrested in connection with the scheme.
BayCounty inmate Robert Daniel Eanes, 27, on Monday was the latest to be charged with smuggling contraband into a detention facility. Officers discovered through jailhouse phone calls and recorded visitations that Eanes allegedly had been getting ice methamphetamine delivered to him on a series of drawings sent through the jail mail service, court records indicated.
Heather Kristine Buehler, 29, and Christopher Charles Inns, 35, also have been charged in the case as senders of the letters. Eanes faces an additional $20,000 bond for the charge but already was being held without bond after he failed a urinalysis during his release on narcotics-related charges.
According to the Bay County Sheriffs Office, Eanes devised a plan to have the two co-defendants send him narcotics through the mail system. He allegedly was receiving hand-drawn pictures of the sun, which had been saturated with a methamphetamine solution and then dried. Once the picture arrived in the mail, Eanes could eat the picture and experience the effects of the drug while incarcerated, BCSO reported.
Eanes had been in jail since June, and officers got word of the mail scheme Aug. 10. Investigators reviewed videos of visitations between Eanes and Buehler, where Eanes would coach her on melting down a substance and putting it in the center of the sun on a hand-drawn picture, officers reported.
In one recorded phone call from Eanes, Inns said Buehler left a batch of letters at his house and that he had put them in his mailbox destined for the jail. BCSO reported that by doing so, Inns facilitated the contraband being delivered to Eanes.
Officers intercepted one of the packages, which contained three letters addressed to Eanes. Two of the envelopes contained greeting cards and photographs. The third had two notes that appeared to have been written by Eanes children and a hand-colored picture of the sun, which directly matched the instructions from the recorded conversations.
A sample taken from the center of the drawn sun tested positive for methamphetamine, BCSO reported.
