An inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in McDowell County pleaded guilty in a Bluefield, WV Federal Courtroom on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016. Tyrell Saunders, 22, is charged with Possessing a Weapon in Prison. He admitted in front of Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Faber, that on May 11, 2015, he had a handcrafted metal weapon, commonly called a “shank.”
Saunders could receive up to five years in federal prison for the charge. He is expected to be sentenced on April 5, 2016. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.