This morning, Teshona Berna Martek, 29, of Punta Gorda, was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison, with the first 15 years being minimum mandatory, for one count of Trafficking in Heroin – 28 grams or more. She was also ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.
In September 2020, a Jail Intelligence Detective, at the Charlotte County Jail, received a tip that an inmate was concealing drugs in her cell. She had recently been incarcerated there on an unrelated case. Immediately, Martek was removed from her cell and it was searched. No contraband was found.
A strip search was authorized due to the circumstances. A foreign object was observed but the defendant attempted to stop the search. Deputies then utilized a body scanner, similar to an x-ray machine, to see if there was contraband on her person. Body scans showed a foreign object in her body.
The item was retrieved by the inmate. It was an object wrapped in a plastic bag. The bag contained narcotics. It was sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for testing and tested positive for heroin, weighing 47 grams.
Assistant State Attorney Scott Patterson prosecuted the case.
Samantha Syoen – Communications Director, State Attorney’s Office