Tampa, FL: Five people pleaded guilty to bringing drugs into the Hillsborough County Falkenburg Road Jail and were sent to federal jail. It comes from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and is shown below.
The court sentenced Seneca Dukes (42, Tampa), David Marty (43, Tampa), Emmanuel Gotay Hernandez (34, Tampa), Miriam Marti-Benning (49, Tampa), and Michelle Lipinski (35, Tampa) to federal prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine resulting in serious bodily injury.
Dukes and Marty, who were in charge of the plot, were given sentences of 26 years and 25 years, respectively. Gonzalez got 9 years in federal jail, Marti-Benning got 8 years and 2 months, and Lipinski got 5 years and 3 months.
The jury trial for Dukes and Marty was set to start on October 23, 2023, but they pleaded guilty before the trial. The pleas for Gotay Hernandez were on October 16, 2023, for Marti-Benning they were on November 14, 2022, and for Lipinski they were on August 11, 2022.
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Court records and other papers show that in March 2021, the group planned to get illegal drugs and sneak them into the Hillsborough County Falkenburg Road Jail.
Dukes and Marty were kept in the same pod at the jail, and Lipinski, who worked as a nurse there, often went to check on them. Dukes became friendly with Lipinski and asked her to meet Marti-Benning to get gifts from her and bring them to Dukes while she was making rounds.
Marty had his sister Marti-Benning get illegal drugs, package them, and give them to Lipinski. Also, Marty asked Gotay Hernandez for help. Hernandez had been in jail with Dukes and Marty before, in the same pod.
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As Marty told him to, Gotay Hernandez got fentanyl and gave it to Marti-Benning. She then gave it to Lipinski as per Florida Daily.
Lipinski brought fentanyl and methamphetamine-filled items into the jail on March 29, 2021, while she was making rounds and gave them to Dukes. One of the prisoners in the pod overdosed on fentanyl the next morning, but Narcan from the jail medical staff saved his life.