Death Row phone number still working

Death Row phone number still working
By Mike Ward | Tuesday, May 19, 2009,

Seven months after prison officials busted death row convict Richard 
Tabler for calling a state senator on a smuggled cell phone, the 
phone number still works.

And the senator who faced a death threat from Tabler over the phone 
caper is demanding to know why.

“The number used should have been taken out of service forever,” said 
state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. “I would hope whoever has it now 
would not be another inmate. But who knows. Here we go again.”

Whitmire said today he called Tabler’s number on Sunday after 
spotting it in his cell phone directory — and was surprised when it 
went to voice mail, with a gruff-sounding man who warned:

“Look, this is my phone. This is my voice mail.

“So, if you’re looking to leave a message, be sure that you’re 
leaving a message for me, not nobody else.”

Whitmire said he immediately wondered if some other convict was still 
using the number. After all, prison investigators determined after 
his arrest that Tabler had borrowed the phone from another death row 
inhabitant.

“As usual with the (prison) system, it’s what I don’t know that 
scares me,” said Whitmire, who heads the legislative joint committee 
that oversees the prison system.

John Moriarty, the prison system’s inspector general, confirmed he is 
investigating who the still-active number is being used by. He would 
not discuss details.

A callback left on the number by the Statesman was not returned. The 
voice did not sound like Tabler.

“I find this amazing,” Whitmire said this afternoon. So did Sen. John 
Carona, R-Dallas, who filed a bill earlier this session that would 
have required companies that sell cheap, untraceable cell phones to 
record identification from buyers.

Corona said the bill was killed by cell companies.

Moriarty and Whitmire said that having such a law would help 
authorities track illicit uses of cell phones, by criminals who are 
behind bars and still loose on the street.

“This is a homeland security issue,” Moriarty said.

Tabler, 30, a convicted murderer from Killeen, was indicted on May 1 
along with his mother and sister on felony contraband charges in 
connection in the cell phone smuggling case that sparked a statewide 
controversy and a rare lockdown of all state prisons.

Tabler was also indicted by the East Texas juryon a felony charge of 
retaliation, accused of threatening to kill Whitmire after the 
lawmaker reported to Tabler’s calls to police.

In the indictment, Tabler is accused of using another inmate’s cell 
phone to make calls, and his mother and sister are accused of buying 
minutes for that phone.

Tabler was given the death penalty for two Killeen slayings in 2004. 
His execution date has not been set.

After Tabler called Whitmire in October 2008, Gov. Rick Perry ordered 
Texas’ 112 state prisons locked down and searched for cell phones and 
other contraband. In the following weeks, officials found dozens of 
cell phones, drugs, tobacco and other items.

He also called this reporter, and threatened to kill this reporter 
and Whitmire at their homes.

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