Imprisoned former prison worker accused of smuggling cellphones

A former corrections officer fired for bringing contraband into prison is accused of smuggling cellphones into the Lawton Correctional Facility.

The Comanche County District Court issued a felony arrest warrant Thursday for Zachary Troy King, 29, for a count of possession of a cellphone in prison.

Oklahoma Departments of Corrections Investigative Agent Travis Crawford began investigating King after a Cricket cellphone was discovered hidden among the mail in his jail cell, the warrant affidavit states.

During a July 5, 2022, interview, King said he’d worked for Oklahoma Corrections Industries at Lawton Correctional Facility before he’d been fired for bringing in contraband, Crawford stated.

King admitted to having the cellphone and said he’d been asked by another inmate to bring in cellphones delivered in printing paper boxes that were concealed in the individual paper bundles inside, the affidavit states. He said he got 20 cellphones and gave them to the inmate, whom he refused to identify, according to Crawford. He said it was his first time providing contraband since he became an inmate in April 2018.

King is serving a 20-year sentence for an April 2018 conviction in Custer County for a count of child abuse, records indicate.