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TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- A jury found a male prison guard guilty of bribery and another guilty of witness tampering in a sex-for-contraband scheme that ended in a deadly shootout at a federal prison for women.
The federal jury convicted Gregory Dixon Friday of three counts of bribery and Alan Moore of witness tampering. The jury also found both guilty of conspiring to accept illegal gratuities and Moore guilty of accepting one.
Three other guards previously had pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.
A sixth guard, Ralph Hill, was killed in the June 21 gunfight he started at Tallahassee Correctional Institution when federal agents came to arrest the guards, officials said.
Justice Department agent William "Buddy" Sentner also was killed, and a prison officer assisting in the arrests was wounded.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle set sentencing for January 10. Dixon could be sentenced to up to 47 years in prison, while Moore could get up to 14 years.
Hinkle threw out the most serious charges of conspiracy to commit extortion and mail fraud, citing insufficient evidence, and the jury acquitted both men of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Both defendants declined to comment. Lawyers for both men said they would challenge the convictions.
More than a dozen current and former inmates testified against the guards. Some said they traded sex for items such as cigarettes, cigars, gum and cosmetics.
None claimed to receive drugs or alcohol.
Others said they acted as lookouts or paid guards for contraband.
"These defendants were part of a broad, tacit understanding among correctional officers," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Davis said in his closing argument. "That agreement was contrary to their legal duty."
Defense lawyers disputed the conspiracy allegation, citing testimony by a key government witness, Alfred Barnes, a guard who pleaded guilty and testified that he had sex with inmates.
"Yet, even he admitted there was no agreement," said Thomas Findley, Dixon's lawyer. "There was no other witness who said there was a conspiracy."
Davis argued there was an unwritten, sometimes unspoken, understanding among guards and inmates that sex and money could be swapped for contraband.
"They lived in an environment where rumor abounded," Davis said.
The defense also attacked the credibility of the inmates, arguing they were convicted felons who had made false accusations in hopes of obtaining sentence reductions.
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