HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — The Department of Justice announced that an inmate of the Dauphin County Prison was sentenced to 51 months for smuggling cell phones into the prison.

According to US Attorney Gerard M. Karam, 44-year-old Danny Cruz is an inmate in the Dauphin County Prison on attempted murder charges. While incarcerated, he bribed a prison guard to help him smuggle cell phones into the prison.

Cruz also recruited his mother to facilitate the bribe payments and to transfer the cell phones to the guard.

The release states that on multiple occasions between October 2015 and January 2016, Cruz’s mother gave money and cell phones to a prison guard, former corrections officers Kyle Bower of Harrisburg, who then smuggled the phones into the prison to Cruz.

Officer Bower was paid hundreds of dollars for each of the phones he smuggled into the prison.

When the sentence was imposed, Judge Christopher C. Conner ordered that Cruz serve his 51-month sentence after he completes his 9-20 year sentence for the attempted murder charges.

All other participants in the incidents have entered guilty pleas to conspiracy to smuggle phones into prison. Former Corrections Officer Bower was sentenced to two months in federal prison, followed by two months of home detention after release. Alice Martinez, 41, of Chambersburg was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Lizarah Matthews, 31 of York was sentenced to one year of probation. Cruz’s mother, 62 of Harrisburg was sentenced to two years of probation with the first two months on home detention.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Dauphin
County Criminal Investigation Division