Missouri man sentenced in case connected to Atwater jail death in 2024
A 39-year-old Missouri man was sentenced in federal court in Fresno after he pleaded guilty in a case connected to the 2024 death of a prison employee at U.S. Penitentiary Atwater, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Jermen Rudd III of Wentzville, Missouri, will serve six years and three months in prison for conspiracy to distribute narcotics and introducing a controlled substance into prison, a DOJ news release said. Rudd pleaded guilty on Jan. 12.
Marc Fischer, a prison mail room correctional officer at the penitentiary, died in August 2024. Fischer opened an envelope laced with a controlled substance and minutes later reported feelling sick. Fischer was transported to a Merced-area hospital but later died.
A second officer also reported feeling sick after handling the mail but recovered, the DOJ said.
Investigators said the envelope was part of a conspiracy to send controlled narcotics, fraudelently marked as legal mail, into the prison and then sell them.
The investigation into the alleged scheme led to the arrests of a man held in the Atwater prison, Jamar Jones, and two from outside the prison, Rudd and Stephanie Ferreira of Evansville, Ind. Jones was to sell the drugs inside the prison, the DOJ said.
The narcotics inside the envelope consisted of two varieties of synthetic cannabinoids sold under the street name “Spice,” the DOJ said.
Synthetic cannabinoids are lab-created chemicals and are designed to produce a psychoactive effect.
Jones and Ferreira remain in custody pending trial set for Sept. 15, the DOJ said.
