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JONESBOROUGH – A month-long investigation by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office led to five individuals being indicted by the Washington County Grand Jury on conspiracy to introduce contraband into a penal facility.

According to Sheriff Keith Sexton, an investigation was initiated into inmates making plans to have contraband, specifically narcotics, introduced into the Washington County Detention Center. The information obtained indicated that contraband was going to be brought into the jail by an employee, later identified as Detention Officer William Turbyfill, 20, of Johnson City. In return, Turbyfill would be paid cash for his role.

Turbyfill was an employee of the Washington County Detention Center (WCDC) 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. Those inmates were Joshua Steadman, 41, of Kingsport, and Logan Stockton, 23, of Johnson City. Tina Bray, 37, of Johnson City, and Andrew Keffer, 46, 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 WCDC, contained cash and a substance suspected to be Suboxone, a Schedule III narcotic.

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 penal facility. Warrants were served on Turbyfill and Stockton at the Washington County Detention Center on July 17. Keffer was arrested on July 18 and Bray was taken into custody on July 19. 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.