Several inmates face vandalism charges after police say equipment at the Carter County Detention Center was damaged on two separate occasions.
Officers of the Carter County Sheriff’s Department charged Christopher Wade Guy, 42, of 1025 Bluefield Ave., and Charlie Barney Oaks, 28, of 285 Crestwood Drive, Mountain City, each with one count of vandalism under $500 after a kiosk machine was damaged July 31. According to a police report, charges are pending against a third inmate as part of the same incident.
On July 31, deputy jailers found a kiosk machine in the jail’s C-A Dormitory had been damaged. The machine is owned by Tennessee Blind Enterprises, the company that operates the jail’s commissary program, and is used by inmates to place their commissary orders.
Surveillance video from that area of the jail showed Guy, Oaks and a third inmate pulling wires loose from the machine, CCSD Cpl. Brian McGinnis said in a report.
The damage done to the machine’s wiring caused the machine to be inoperable, McGinnis said. The cost of repairing the damage was estimated to be less than $500. Because the machine was damaged, CCSD Sgt. Ronnie Kent obtained warrants charging all three inmates with one count of misdemeanor vandalism.
Guy and Oaks appeared Tuesday in Carter County General Sessions Court, where both were arraigned and entered guilty pleas to the charge of vandalism. Judge Keith Bowers sentenced each man to serve 45 days in jail and ordered each of them to pay a $25 fine and court costs.
The commissary kiosk machine was damaged once again on the very morning Guy and Oaks entered their guilty pleas, this time by another inmate.
Officers of the Sheriff’s Department charged Christopher Neal Dove, 29, of Elizabethton, with one count of vandalism under $500.
At around 1:30 a.m., Deputy Brandon James saw Dove lighting a tightly rolled strip of toilet paper, known as a “wick,” using the wiring for the commissary kiosk in C-A Dormitory. The officer reported what he saw to Deputy Jerry Sheffield, who then went to the dormitory to question Dove.
“Inmate Dove then gave (me) the wick and admitted that he had lit if off the exposed wire on the kiosk, showing where he had lit it,” Sheffield said. “At that time, I noticed exposed wires pulled out of both the kiosk and visitation monitor screens.”
“Camera footage was reviewed and Inmate Dove can be seen pulling the wires from the kiosk using it to light a cigarette and wick,” Sheffield said.
Dove appeared in Carter County General Sessions Court on Wednesday and was bound over to a Carter County Grand Jury on the charge.