James Edward Mareno

James Edward Mareno had a chance to significantly cut his time in prison with an agreement to help investigators make cases against other dope dealers.
The 25-year-old Bayou La Batre man did provide help and seemed poised to win his lighter punishment. While he was awaiting sentencing, though, he had his wife smuggle drugs into the Escambia County Detention Center, and then he assaulted a fellow inmate who gave him up while both were in the federal courthouse in Mobile.
Now, Mareno will spend more than a dozen years in prison. U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose sentenced him on Friday to 12 years and seven months for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, three counts of possessing or attempting to possess prison contraband, conspiracy to provide contraband in prison and retaliating against a witness.According to prosecutors, Mareno's wife tried to smuggle methadone and marijuana to him and Stewart in April and May by mailing packages bearing the return addresses of lawyers' offices. Mareno's wife, Mandy Lynn Mareno, pleaded guilty to drug charges and is serving three years' probation. Stewart got a year and a day for his crime.