Michigan Woman Gets Probation For Sending Drug To Jailed Husband, Hidden Under Stamps

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) - A Huron County woman has been sentenced to three years of probation for trying to send an opiate to her husband who's in jail.

Christina M. Stout was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty last month to two counts of attempting to furnish contraband to a prisoner. Prosecutors dropped an additional charge of conspiring to furnish contraband to a prisoner, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, in exchange for her guilty plea.

On Dec. 10, a jail corrections officer became suspicious of mail addressed to inmate Brett Stout, according to Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel.

"Something about it appeared suspicious, with the way the stamps were on the front of it," Federspiel said. "After doing a little investigation on it, it was discovered that underneath the postage stamps were small, sublingual films of suboxone."

The drug is a "very addictive" opiate or heroin substitute, he told The Saginaw News.

Investigators determined Christina Stout sent the mail to her husband, Federspiel said.

Brett Stout was sentenced last month to 18 months to 10 years in prison on the conspiracy charge.

The couple was charged based on an investigation by the county sheriff's department.