A deputy at Manatee jail resigned over a relationship with inmate at Florida prison
Three months after he was hired, a Manatee County sheriff’s corrections deputy received a video from an inmate at the Florida prison where he previously worked. In the video, the woman showed off a wedding ring, saying that she received it.
Now, that ring, a stash of secret emails written under an alias and the acknowledgment of a relationship between the two has resulted in the resignation of Marvin Louis Walton Jr. from his job at the Manatee County jail.
Despite the ring, the inmate, Keneisha Smith, and Walton, both 31, weren’t married.
The former corrections officer started the relationship during his two-year tenure with the Florida Department of Corrections, working at the Hernando Correctional Institution where Smith was in custody at the time. She has since been moved to another prison in the state to continue serving a 13-year sentence for armed robbery.
Three months after Walton’s resignation from FDOC, staff at the state prison discovered the relationship while reviewing a video message Smith sent him through Jpay, the prison’s online correspondence and payment system.
Walton acknowledged the ongoing relationship when questioned by Professional Standards investigators at the Manatee Sheriff’s Office in November. He explained that he gave a prison volunteer money for the ring, and had it delivered to Smith by the volunteer.
The ring, he said, was supposed to symbolize “that I would never leave her side” and promise to be with her through “her extended stay” in prison, he told investigators.
“This clandestine personal relationship with an inmate in state custody continued after Walton became a corrections deputy with the MCSO. However, he failed to notify the sheriff in any way, or inform any member of his chain of command of the existence of this amorous entanglement,” the internal affairs report concluded.
That internal affairs investigation sustained two findings of conduct unbecoming a deputy against Walton for having a relationship with Smith and for failing to inform his chain of command of the relationship. Facing termination, Watson resigned in a letter dated Nov. 23 to Manatee Sheriff Rick Wells.
Walton did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.
The Manatee Sheriff’s Office learned of the relationship in late October, and a copy of an incident report from the state Department of Corrections was included with the misconduct complaint.
Walton used an alias, Sean M. Williams, when he created an account with the Jpay system in April 2019, a year after he had begun working at the prison, according to the incident report. Walton made up a home address, phone number and email address associated with the account.
The two exchanged hundreds of emails in the 18 months that followed before an investigation into the relationship began. During that time, 26 deposits were made using prepaid credit cards into her account, totaling more than $3,000, according to the incident report.
Some of those emails were sent from the Manatee County jail, investigators later learned when they tracked the IP addresses associated with the emails. A Christmas card with an “I love you” message from Smith sent to the Williams alias was mailed to Walton’s home address.
When questioned at the prison about the ring, Smith claimed it was from her family. But when investigators pushed further about whether she was communicating with Walton, Smith got quiet and nervous, the investigating lieutenant noted in the Nov. 11 incident report.
The lieutenant concluded that a more thorough investigation was warranted based on the evidence he found, and sent his report to the Inspector General’s Office.
But days before that, Smith had questioned a sergeant during a security check about when the IG was coming. The sergeant didn’t know what she was talking about.
“It’s about an officer, they think he sent me a ring,” the woman told the sergeant. “They think Officer Walton sent me a ring, but it came from my family.”
