One of two men charged with committing new crimes while in jail serving time on old crimes appeared during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court/Criminal Division Monday (February 2).
Thirty-four-year-old Matthew Kyle Ford and Twenty-nine-year-old Ryan Alexander Gayer were both accused of being involved in a drug swap that reportedly left Gayer impaired.
On Monday, Ford pled guilty to a charge of delivery of a controlled substance and was given five years-probation.
Gayer entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him during an earlier court session. He was an Act 309 inmate in the Baxter County Detention Center. A 309 inmate is a state prisoner housed in a county or city jail. The program was established primarily to address overcrowding in the state prison system.
In addition, the 309 program provide a source of labor for local governments saving them money.
Gayer’s record shows he had been charged with a number of crimes including trafficking drugs including fentanyl, maintaining a drug premises, simultaneously possessing drugs and firearms, being a felon in possession of a firearm and breaking or entering.
According to court records, Gayer’s charges were all filed in Sebastian and Crawford Counties. His longest sentence was handed down in Crawford County where he was given 27 years in prison with 13 years suspended.
Prior to entering prison, Gayer’s last known address was along Blackfoot Circle in Greenwood.
Gayer is now back in prison and being housed in the Cummins Modular Unit. He has lost eligibility to be in the 309 program for now.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the jail drug swap case, when he was questioned, Gayer’s speech was slurred and he was having to hold onto objects to stand erect.
Gayer “denied several times” that he had gotten any pills from another inmate “and refused to give any information regarding the incident.”
Fragments of an orange pill were found in Gayer’s wallet. The pill fragments were the same color and texture as those prescribed for Ford, who was identified as the only inmate in the jail with a prescription for buprenorphine.
Gayer was given a drug test that came back positive for buprenorphine.
Brand names for buprenorphine include Suboxone. The uses for the drug are listed as pain relief and for treatment of opioid use disorders.
When questioned Ford confirmed he had been prescribed a medicine containing buprenorphine but denied he had given a pill to Gayer.
After a “few minutes of denial,” Ford was reported to have confessed to passing the pill.
Ford said on October 13 last year he had “cheeked” the medication when it was dispensed to him and placed it on his dinner tray which Gayer collected after the meal as part of his Act 309 inmate duties.
Gayer is charged with possession of prohibited items, possession of a controlled substance and being a habitual offender which could lengthen any sentence he might receive.
Ford was charged in 2021 with drug related offenses. He was sentenced to three-years-probation on March 28, 2022, and quickly began to violate the terms and conditions of his probation.
At least three revocation petitions have been filed in Ford’s case based on a long string of violations, including failing to report, not entering a rehab program, failing to report new addresses, failing to report for the intake process after being placed on probation in late March 2022, failure to provide contact information such as telephone numbers and failure to pay fines and fees.
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