Prosecutors: Inmates smuggled in gun, hoping for early release

Butner, N.C. — A judge gave an inmate an extra 10 years' jail time Friday for smuggling a gun into a prison in a plot to get early release.

Senior U.S. District Judge James C. Fox sentenced Craig Lamont Butler, 36, for obtaining contraband while in prison.

Prosecutors argued that Butler and other inmates at Butner Federal Correctional Institution conspired to smuggle a firearm into the prison. They buried the firearm and planned to alert authorities about it and blame other prisoners in the hopes of getting their sentences reduced.

On April 9, 2006, Butler and another inmate told guards about the firearm, but their accusations against other inmates were not believed, prosecutors said.