Former Federal Jail Guard Sentenced

A former prison guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Center learned his fate on Tuesday for trying to buy thousands of dollars worth of cocaine.

Judge Thomas J. Whelan sentenced Matthew Gutierrez, 34, to serve 15 months in custody and three years supervised release.

Gutierrez was arrested at a storage facility on Sept. 7. He was accused of buying $5,000 worth of cocaine, which investigators said he was going to re-sell.

Gutierrez befriended an inmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, who put him in touch with a drug dealer, police said. The drug dealer was in fact an informant working with the FBI.

Gutierrez drove with the informant to a Mission Valley Starbucks, according to a criminal complaint. On the drive, Gutierrez allegedly told him he was going to school in order to become "a crooked cop."

The complaint also said Gutierrez admitted that he let inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center use his cell phone to make personal calls and traffic drugs.

Gutierrez' family said he moved back in with his parents in Chula Vista after his wife left him and that things were not going well.

Gutierrez's lawyer said Gutierrez resigned from his job with the federal prison system.

Before working as a guard in Arizona and San Diego, Gutierrez served eight years in the National Guard.
 

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