Jailed Man Sentenced for Cheese Sandwiches

Jailed Man Sentenced for Cheese Sandwiches

app. 1/5/05.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A man serving a life sentence for murder was sentenced to three additional years in prison for passing out cheese sandwiches while in jail.



Douglas Eugene Wilson, 45, pleaded guilty Monday to possession of contraband and was sentenced by District Judge Thomas Kane.


Prosecutors said Wilson had the sandwiches while in jail awaiting trial on the murder charge and he tried to give them to other inmates, which is a violation of jail rules.


A sheriff's deputy testified at a hearing in May that they warned Wilson not to pass food to other inmate then shocked him with a stun gun when he ignored them.


Wilson was tackled and handcuffed after he reportedly charged a deputy. Second-degree assault and attempted second-degree assault charges against Wilson were dropped in exchange for the contraband guilty plea.


"Why are the taxpayers paying the judiciary to hold this hearing on some contraband sandwiches?" he said in a telephone interview with the Gazette of Colorado Springs. "Taxpayers want to know where their money is going — there it is."


Wilson was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the strangling death of Liza Chavez, 37.