GREENFIELD — A woman who smuggled drugs into the Hancock County Jail and shared them with 15 of her fellow inmates — landing them all on a 30-day lockdown inside the facility — will serve three years in prison as punishment for her actions, officials say.
Kayla Lloyd-Spittle, 30, of Indianapolis, recently pleaded guilty in Hancock County Superior Court 1 to one Level 4 felony count of dealing a schedule 3 controlled substance.
The plea comes as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. The deal called for the defendant to serve a total of seven years, Prosecutor John Keiffner said. The first three years will be spent in an Indiana Department of Correction facility, followed immediately by four years on probation, he said.
Lloyd-Spittle was booked into the jail Aug. 10 to serve a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to several drug-related charges in an unrelated case. She was searched during the routine book-in process but managed to smuggle a bag containing drugs past jail officers, officials said.
A woman sharing the cellblock with Lloyd-Spittle came forward two days later to tell officers she’d seen her and about a dozen of her fellow detainees using drugs, according to a jail incident report.
Fifteen women in addition to Lloyd-Spittle were questioned and drug-tested, officials said. Each failed the drug test; their screens came back positive for narcotics and methamphetamine, according to jail reports.
Lloyd-Spittle immediately admitted when jail officers questioned her that she’d shared drugs with other inmates. At the time, she willingly handed over a clear plastic baggy containing a few more pills she’d been saving for later use, reports state.
Lloyd-Spittle and the 15 other inmates involved in the incident — who together made up half the population of their cellblock — were punished per jail protocols, officials said.
Each was placed in 30-day lockdown, confined to their 7-by-12 foot cells for 23 hours a day for a month. They were allowed to spend an hour a day visiting with other inmates in the larger common area of their cellblock. Their visitation hours and access to commissary items were also limited, official said.
Jail officers pursued additional charges against Lloyd-Spittle, turning their reports over to the prosecutor’s office. And about a week after the incident, prosecutors filed two felony counts against the woman.
She faced one Level 4 felony count of dealing a controlled substance and one Level 5 felony count of prisoner possession of a dangerous device or material.
The second charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement with prosecutors, Keiffner said.