By Theresa Braine
New York Daily News
FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — Four people in Pennsylvania have been charged after one of them fired a cocaine-stuffed arrow at a jail window and missed.
The arrow bounced off the jail wall and landed in the grass just outside, where staff came upon it four days later, authorities in Fayette County said.
Police cracked it open with a bolt cutter and found rubber-glove fingers stuffed with “a significant amount of cocaine,” Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele told WPXI-TV. Investigators surveyed jail video and inmates’ recorded phone calls and caught four people hatching the crossbow plan — two inmates and two outside co-conspirators.
Alfonso Pugh, 38, and Charles Smith, 41, were already incarcerated at Fayette County Jail in Uniontown, Penn., about 45 miles south of Pittsburgh. They were charged additionally with felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of contraband, according to the Observer-Reporter. Both were held on $100,000 bond and scheduled for preliminary hearing next Tuesday.
You can learn a lot from phone calls, such as plans for contraband being introduced to your facility or planned assaults on staff or other inmates. In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses the importance of checking inmate’s phone records.
Pugh was already jailed pending trial on attempted homicide, aggravated assault and robbery charges related to a 2024 home invasion, the Observer-Reporter noted.
The same drug charges were levied against Amanda Joyce Frey, 38, of Smithfield, and Seth Michael Stepich, 37. Stepich, who allegedly fired the crossbow, was also charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, the Observer-Reporter noted. Frey was arraigned Monday and ordered held on $100,000 bond, and Stepich was still being sought this week.
Jail staff on a routine security check stumbled upon the arrow underneath a recreation yard window on June 6 , Fayette County warden John Lenkey told KDKA-TV. Security footage showed it flying from across the road at about 8 p.m. on June 2 . Video and phone recordings showed Frey cutting up a rubber glove, filling it with something and stuffing the package into an arrow shaft during a call with Smith. They are in a relationship.
“7:30 dawg. Don’t let anything stop you in the way,” Smith said, according to court documents obtained by WPXI. “Do what I told you to do. Make sure that (expletive) goes through.”
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