Cynthia Piatt was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to a number of charges, including participating in attempts to sneak methamphetamine into the Baxter County jail in a Bible, and attempting to fake drug tests in a variety of ways.
Piatt was sentenced during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
According to court records, the 29-year-old Piatt attempted to fake drug tests by providing a sample of water from a toilet and having another inmate provide urine to be sampled. Piatt put the borrowed specimen in a shampoo bottle and attempted to conceal it in a body cavity.
Piatt also faced a number of drug-related charges, including conspiring with others in August last year to sneak methamphetamine, marijuana and tobacco to her live-in boyfriend, Mikel Short, who was then an inmate in the Baxter County Detention Center.
The group devised a plan to put methamphetamine in the spine of the Bible along with the other contraband in order to get it into the jail. Staff at the local lockup found the substances in the Bible during an inspection of inmate mail.
The state filed a forfeiture action to seize a 2006 Chrysler van alleged to have been used in criminal activity. Piatt made an attempt to stop the action last year saying the vehicle was “solely used for domestic use”. When asked during the sentencing process Thursday if she understood that the state could take possession of the van and dispose of it, she made no counter argument and said she was aware the vehicle would be confiscated.
Piatt is currently an inmate in the McPherson Unit of the state prison system at Newport on an earlier conviction.
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