ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608050096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA
A former guard at the Lorton Correctional Complex was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for attempting to smuggle a loaded handgun into the prison.
Lewis Saunders, 34, pleaded guilty in May to one count of bringing a weapon into the prison.
Saunders reported to work April 30 at the southern Fairfax County prison with the antique gun hidden beneath a sandwich, the FBI said.
Saunders carried five rounds of ammunition as well as the loaded FBI spokeswoman Susan Lloyd. The weapon dated from about 1915, she said.
According to court papers, Saunders was halted as he tried to go through a checkpoint at the facility for his 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. An officer found the five-shot handgun, fully loaded, in Saunders' white plastic lunch bag.
Lloyd said Saunders said he forgot he had the weapon in the bag. The guards held Saunders until FBI agents arrived, she said.
In the room where Saunders was detained, agents found a knife with a six-inch blade and a can of Mace in a trash can, Lloyd said.
``Chances would be slim that he brought all these items into the facility without knowingly possessing them,'' FBI agent Sarah Kaufman wrote in an affidavit.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB