A month-long investigation by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office led to five people being indicted by the Washington County Grand Jury on Conspiracy to Introduce Contraband into a Correctional Facility.
Contraband was reportedly going to be brought into the jail by an employee, identified as 20-year-old Detention Officer William Turbyfill of Johnson City. In return, Turbyfill would be paid cash for his role. Turbyfill was an employee for three months before investigators thwarted his first attempt to bring contraband into the facility. He was immediately terminated.
Investigators identified two inmates involved in coordinating and arranging for the contraband to be delivered, 41-year-old Joshua Steadman of Kingsport and 23-year-old Logan Stockton of Johnson City. Two others, 37-year-old Tina Bray of Johnson City and 46-year-old Andrew Keffer of Telford, were identified as associates of Steadman that were involved in the matter.
Keffer was suspected to be supplying the narcotics, with Bray being responsible for packaging and delivering the narcotics that were to be brought into the jail. On May 31, the package of narcotics and cash was delivered by Bray to a pre-determined location for Turbyfill to retrieve. The package, which was intercepted and never made it into the detention center, contained cash and a substance suspected to be Suboxone.
The facts of the case were presented to the Washington County Grand Jury on July 10. As a result, Turbyfill, Steadman, Bray, Keffer, and Stockton were indicted on the charge of Conspiracy to Introduce Contraband into a Correctional Facility. Warrants were served on Turbyfill and Stockton at the Washington County Detention Center on Monday. Keffer was arrested on Tuesday and Bray was taken into custody on Wednesday. Both were transported to the Washington County Detention Center. All had a $5,000 bond. Steadman is currently incarcerated out of state and will return to Washington County to face the named charges upon completion of his current sentence.
