HOLLIDAYSBURG — All charges were held against two Blair County inmates while a third inmate had one charge dismissed in a joint contraband case following a preliminary hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

Philadelphia residents Tyrone Chase Jr., 29, Amir Ishan Palmer-Kennedy, 20, and Kemar Ricketts, 35, are facing single misdemeanor counts of criminal conspiracy to possess contraband and possession of contraband by an inmate. Ricketts is also facing two misdemeanor counts of contraband – telecommunication device.

Prison Sgt. Chad Murray was the first witness called to testify by Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Mays.

Murray, who oversees operations at the Blair County Prison, said he received information in August that an inmate was in possession of possible contraband.

After notifying Deputy Warden Cory Yedlosky, Murray began watching the prison’s live surveillance footage before the facility was placed into lockdown. During this observation, Murray said he saw Ricketts enter Palmer-Kennedy’s cell empty-handed before leaving shortly after with a book. Ricketts then returned to his own cell with the book.

Once the prison was on lockdown, corrections officers searched Ricketts’ cell, which he shared with Chase. Murray said the book he saw Ricketts retrieve from Palmer-Kennedy’s cell was located underneath Ricketts’ bunk. The book had portions of its pages cut out so a cellphone would fit inside, Murray said.

Public defender Robin Pitts, who was representing Ricketts, questioned Murray on the book’s appearance, but Murray couldn’t recall its title, size or color. He also couldn’t say if there were other books inside Palmer-Kennedy’s cell.

Chase’s defense attorney William Wigman asked Murray if he saw Chase on surveillance with the book or an unauthorized cellphone, to which Murray said no.

Hollidaysburg Detective Jeffrey Friday was called by Mays and detailed how he investigated the contraband case. After obtaining a search warrant, a forensic extraction was performed on the cellphone and Friday went through its text and call logs, as well as its photos.

Friday said he cross referenced the numbers from the incoming and outgoing text messages and phone calls to the prison’s database of numbers that inmates gave as their approved contact list. He said anyone on the list had the ability to contact that specific inmate in the prison and the number could only have come from the inmate.

Friday’s search showed that “a majority were associated with Ricketts” but some were also associated with Chase and Palmer-Kennedy, indicating that they were in possession of the cellphone while inside the prison at some point.

Friday said he uncovered a text thread between Ricketts and a person on the outside, with the first message of the thread being sent from the outside individual. The significance of that, Friday said, is that the outside person would have to know the phone’s number before handing it over to Ricketts, meaning they were likely the one who smuggled it into the prison.

Further investigation revealed that individual to be a Primecare employee, Friday said, who he believed “was an LPN.” Primecare provides inmates medical care and its employees aren’t employed by Blair County nor the prison.

Friday said he went to Walmart on a hunch and their asset protection employee showed him footage of the former Primecare employee obtaining the phone later found in Ricketts’ cell.

Following Friday’s testimony, Palmer-Kennedy’s defense attorney Devin Bennati and Wigman both asked for Palmer-Kennedy’s and Chase’s cases to be dismissed, saying Mays hadn’t presented enough evidence to show that their clients had definitively been in possession of the cellphone.

Presiding Magisterial District Judge Paula M. Aigner disagreed, saying “circumstantially” there was enough and bound all of their charges over to the Blair County Court of Common Pleas.

In Ricketts’ case, Pitt conceded the misdemeanor count of possession of contraband, but argued the rest of the testimony called for speculation.

He asked for the dismissal of the three misdemeanor counts of providing contraband to other inmates.

When Aigner indicated she would bound all of Ricketts’ charges to the court of common pleas, Pitt questioned the inclusion of the third count. Aigner then asked Mays the basis of the count’s inclusion, to which Mays said Ricketts had helped get the phone into the prison.

“To provide to himself?” Aigner asked. “That’s a bit of a stretch.”

She then dismissed one of the counts while forwarding the remaining charges.

Chase and Palmer-Kennedy already face drug-trafficking charges, while Ricketts is facing kidnapping and assault charges. All three were remanded to the Blair County Prison in lieu of bail.