Crime & Safety

Woman Pleads to Helping Las Colinas Prisoner Sneak Meth Into Jail

Nicoll Koval, 24, faces up to five years in prison.

A woman who recently served time for a 2010 hit-and-run fatality on a Rancho Penasquitos freeway pleaded guilty Tuesday to helping a prisoner sneak drugs into jail.

Nicoll Koval, 24, faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced Aug. 15.

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The prisoner that Koval helped, Sandra Lamb, also pleaded guilty to the felony charge and will be sentenced July 10.

Last August, Lamb had someone send her a greeting card laced with methamphetamine to the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee, but it was intercepted by sheriff's deputies, according to prosecutor Michael Runyon.

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When Lamb didn't receive the card, she reached out to someone else outside the jail to send her another drug-laced card, and Koval -- who was in custody with Lamb -- called that person on Lamb's behalf, according to Runyon.

At the time, Lamb was serving a sentence for theft and false identity. She faces an additional year in custody at sentencing next month.

Koval, who was originally sentenced last June to a year in custody as part of probation, served eight months before being released.

She had pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run causing the death of Albert Lee Holman.

Holman was walking on the side of state Route 56 on Oct. 19, 2010, shortly before 3 a.m. when he was struck.

Koval fled the scene and didn't turn herself in until the next day.

-City News Service

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