Photo: Mary Victoria Ward
A 60-year-old Mountain Home woman who is charged with being part of a plot to smuggle contraband to her inmate grandson appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
Mary Victoria Ward pled not guilty to felony charges of furnishing; possessing or using prohibited articles and conspiracy.
On September 8, Ward’s grandson, 21-year-old Hunter Ty Peifer, had been brought from the Grimes unit of the state prison system to the county jail so he could make an appearance in Baxter County Circuit Court on an earlier charge.
On September 9, he did appear and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for robbing a person in mid-September last year.
According to the probable cause affidavit, during his stay in the county jail, Hunter Peifer and his grandmother had frequent telephone conversations that were recorded regarding how to smuggle prohibited items into the facility.
A scheme was devised and put into play.
On Sept. 12, a jailer was making a perimeter check around the outside of the jail when he found a wrapped package of tobacco on the ground near the exterior wall of the jail’s B Pod housing unit.
The jailer then heard a noise and saw a person in nearby bushes. The person fled.
After the incident, jail supervisors began reviewing surveillance camera footage.
The cameras caught a man trying to climb up from a drainage ditch behind the jail.
The man walked up to the fence, looked around and left. He returned shortly with a bag that he tossed over the fence into the perimeter of the jail.
Jail staff discovered a make-do system set up to retrieve the package.
It consisted of a broomstick to which a twisted line fashioned from plastic trash bags was attached.
The broomstick would be pushed through a small ventilation hole to the outside. Surveillance cameras caught Hunter Peifer’s brother, 20-year-old David Zach Peifer, attempting to tie the package onto the makeshift rope.
He was apparently almost caught by the jailer making his rounds. The bag was abandoned.
A warrant for David Zach Peifer was issued Sept. 16. He is the only person identified as being involved in the scheme not yet arrested.
During the incident on Sept. 12, there was a telephone call between Hunter Peifer and his grandmother that contained what is alleged to be a “play-by-play” description of what was taking place at the jail.
The next morning, the inmate called his grandmother and they discussed the “close call” when the jailer apparently almost caught David Peifer in the act of attaching the bag to the garbage bag cordage.
They were reported to have laughed about the failed attempt.
During several recorded telephone calls, Hunter Peifer is alleged to have requested a number of items, including syringes, that he wanted “dropped” to him.
Jail officials determined these conversations probably indicated a second drop was planned.
In another conversation, Hunter Peifer asked his grandmother to bring him a different pair of shoes to the jail.
He was alleged to have asked his relative to put contraband in the shoes. Jail staff refused to allow the exchange.
Ward was arrested Sept. 13 for the part she played in the contraband smuggling scheme.
When she checked into the jail, Hunter Peifer somehow got word that his relative had been jailed.
He complained of health issues being caused by low blood pressure. He was brought into the area where his grandmother was being booked to check him out.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Hunter Peifer began talking with his grandmother and was alleged to have told her to remain silent about the smuggling operation.
After he had spoken to his grandmother, the inmate said he was feeling better and was taken back to the pod to which he was assigned.
In a recorded conversation with his mother, Hunter Peifer made it clear he had faked the blood pressure problem so he could try and speak with his grandmother.
His mother was said to have “chastised” her son for his behavior.
Another inmate, 26-year-old Brian Calvert, was also charged for participating in the scheme. He had been seen on surveillance cameras spinning trash bags into cordage that was attached to the broomstick and used to retrieve the packages of contraband.
Calvert entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him on Thursday.
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