LOS ANGELES – A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was sentenced to two years in jail Monday after pleading no contest to attempting to smuggle a burrito filled with heroin to a jail inmate.
Henry Marin, 27, pleaded no contest in April to charges of drug smuggling and conspiracy. As part of a plea deal, the conspiracy charge was dismissed and Marin was sentenced to two years instead of three, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Marin allegedly conspired with an undercover investigator to bring the drug-laden burrito to an inmate in the lockup at Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles in February 2010, according to a Los Angeles County Grand Jury indictment.
He later told authorities that he intended to inspect the burrito before giving it to the inmate and denied knowing there were drugs stuffed inside it.
Marin's attorney, Donald N. Kelly, said he was not sure why Marin agreed to smuggle the burrito when he was not being paid, according to the Times.
"This guy has no guile," he said after Monday's hearing. "I think he was someone who was taken advantage of ... He didn't realize any gain from it."
Marin had appeared on the 2007 reality TV series "The Academy," which followed recruit training at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Academy. He failed at the academy but re-enrolled and was later hired by the sheriff's department.
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