By SAMANTHA VICENT World Staff Writer | Posted: Thursday, November 12, 2015 12:00 am
McALESTER — A man with Tulsa gang ties has been charged with conspiracy and kidnapping after reportedly forcing a woman to travel from Tulsa to McAlester to help him use a drone to smuggle contraband into Oklahoma’s highest security prison last month.
Marquis Gilkey, 29, was also charged in Pittsburg County on Monday with attempting to bring contraband into a penal institution and committing a gang-related offense with Clifton “Chili” Wilson, an inmate at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and purported general of the 107 Hoover Crips gang.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections officials said staff at OSP in McAlester found a remote-controlled drone upside down on the prison grounds, with a package that had been suspended underneath by fishing line, at about 9 a.m. Oct. 26.
DOC spokesperson Alex Gerszewski has said the package contained two hacksaw blades, a cellphone and cellphone battery, a hands-free device, two packages of cigarettes, two packages of cigars, two tubes of super glue, a 5.3-ounce bag of marijuana, a 0.8-ounce bag with methamphetamine and another bag with less than 1 gram of heroin.
A probable cause affidavit states that the drone contained a memory card that had images of a woman — a Texas resident who regularly visits an OSP inmate — holding a remote control while operating the device.
On Nov. 2, the woman told the DOC Inspector General’s Office that an inmate at the prison, later identified as Wilson, told her to purchase the drone and that she received money in her PayPal account for it.
She said she rented a car on Oct. 23 and met up with associates of the inmate at a Hooters restaurant at 61st Street and Memorial Drive in Tulsa.
While there, she said a pregnant woman named Amanda got into a car’s back seat and a man named Marquis, later identified as Gilkey, approached the vehicle and lifted the front of his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband.
“Marquis got in the car and told (the woman) to drive east on 61st Street to an apartment complex,” the affidavit states. “There Marquis exited the car while Amanda remained in the back seat with (the woman) in the car.”
The woman reported that Gilkey returned to the car with a backpack and told her to drive to McAlester, where he ordered her to pay cash for a room at the Happy Days hotel. She also said she was threatened by Gilkey, who mentioned bodily harm to herself and her children, and that he took her driver’s license in Tulsa and told her “he knew where she lived.”
“(The woman) said she had attempted to run away but Marquis had thrown her to the ground and stood on her back while threatening her,” the affidavit states. “(The woman) said Marquis had taken nude photographs … and threatened to post them on the Internet if she ever spoke about what they were doing.”
Gilkey, the woman and Amanda reportedly spent that weekend driving through residential areas near the prison before deciding to try to send the drone to the prison from a nearby abandoned home about 2 a.m. Oct. 26, according to the affidavit.
“At one point Marquis said ‘they shot it down’ and he and (the woman) left,” the document states.
The woman noted that Gilkey spent a lot of time talking to someone that weekend, and she believed he was the same inmate who had contacted her during visitation. DOC officials identified him as Wilson in the affidavit.
Gilkey, described by authorities as a member of the 107 Hoover Crips, has spent time in prison for multiple Tulsa County robbery convictions.
Records show that Wilson is up for parole next October on a 2000 conviction of robbery by force or fear in Grady County.
Tulsa Police Sgt. Sean Larkin, day shift supervisor for the department’s gang unit, confirmed that Gilkey was involved with the gang in Tulsa but described him as essentially being “missing in action” from the streets locally after his imprisonment.
Wilson has not been charged in the incident but was named as a co-conspirator on a document detailing the charges against Gilkey.
The use of the drone to smuggle contraband into a prison apparently is the first incident of its kind reported in Oklahoma. DOC Director Robert Patton has said that similar incidents have occurred in other states and he has directed his staff to “stay attentive” for further attempts involving drones.
Gilkey remains in custody on $25,000 bond, jail records show.