LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A kitchen worker at a prison outside Las Vegas is accused of having a sexual relationship with a convicted murderer and smuggling in phones and drugs, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Wednesday.
Tamika Shelton was charged with furnishing a phone to an inmate, which is a felony, records showed.
Last year, an investigator with the Nevada Department of Corrections Office of the Inspector General accused Shelton, a food service worker, of “furnishing illegal phones and drugs” to inmates at the Southern Desert Correctional Center, documents said. The investigator also accused Shelton of having a relationship with the inmate.
Southern Desert, a men’s only prison, is located about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the town of Indian Springs.
The corrections department investigator learned Shelton’s phone number had 57 phone calls with Robert Williams, a 36-year-old inmate serving a life sentence for murder, records said. NDOC records show Williams was later moved to the Ely State Prison for “behavior issues.”
In a call in January 2022, Williams asked Shelton to buy his daughter a phone, the investigator wrote in court documents. However, prison officials learned Williams has no children.
“In this same call, Offender Williams made statements, which included that he was thinking about the time when Ms. Shelton was sucking on his tongue,” documents said. “He made a statement about him kissing her ‘luscious lips’ and all about the ‘freaky [expletive] they been onto.’”
Prison officials in Ely discovered a phone attached to Williams’ leg during his transfer there, documents said.
Prison investigators interviewed Shelton, who “admitted to purchasing between five and 10 cellular phones, secreted them into SDCC and furnished them to inmates,” documents said. Shelton also “admitted that she furnished prewrapped burrito-shaped packages that she received from Offender Williams’ relative into SDCC.”
Prison officials suspect the packages contained either marijuana or methamphetamine, documents said.
Williams also admitted to having sex with Williams while working in the kitchen, documents said.
Prison investigators later found more than 300 messages between Shelton’s phone number and Williams’ phone where “they were clearly in a romantic relationship,” documents said.
In addition to the phone-related charge, the criminal investigator lists offenses of unauthorized communication with a prison, inhumanity to prisoners and sexual abuse of a prisoner, furnishing a controlled substance to a prisoner. However, Shelton was not charged with any of the added offenses.
A warrant for Shelton’s arrest was filed in mid-August, records said. On Tuesday, Aug. 29, security officers at Creech Air Force Base detained Shelton upon her arrival to work. An officer had scanned Shelton’s identification card, finding the active warrant, documents said.
Court records noted Shelton “was very cooperative” during her arrest. Judge Harmony Letizia first set Shelton’s bail at $1,000 and later released Shelton on her own recognizance, records showed.
Shelton was due to return to court on Dec. 18.
In 2016, a jury found Williams guilty of shooting and killing a man in the Clark County Wetlands Park in 2014 and getting into a standoff with police. A judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
It was unclear Wednesday why prosecutors did not seek the additional charges against Shelton as listed in the declaration of probation cause for her arrest.
Officials with NDOC did not immediately return an email asking if Shelton remained employed.
