Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A county jail inmate faces additional time behind bars after being accused of bringing a narcotic painkiller into the facility.
Jimmy Neal Armstrong, 49, of Tucumcari was charged June 21 in Tucumcari magistrate court of one count of bringing contraband into a jail, a fourth-degree felony that can lead up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
According to a complaint filed by Quay County sheriff’s deputy Rudy Vallejo, he was called to the Quay County Detention Center in Tucumcari to investigate a report of an inmate bringing contraband into the facility.
According to a jail incident report and several jail officers, inmates were being escorted from a jail pod to the recreation yard June 4. Armstrong ran to a pod door and slid a piece of paper under it, hitting another officer in the foot behind the door.
A jail officer opened the piece of paper, which had a man’s name on it and a small orange strip of what he believed to be suboxone, a powerful pain reliever.
Officers separated Armstrong from the other inmates and searched him. In his cell, officers found a pair of socks with what appeared to be suboxone sewn into the toe area.
Armstrong in November pleaded guilty in a plea deal to two counts of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer in exchange for six other charges being dropped. He was detained in late May after being accused of a probation violation.
No attorney was listed for Armstrong in online court records.