A 34-year-old San Jose woman has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly providing drugs to an incarcerated person who died in custody at the Maple Street Correctional Center Sept. 29, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
It’s the second set of charges the DA’s Office has filed this month against an individual allegedly bringing drugs into the jail, and the Sept. 29 death of 31-year-old Markeisha Monique Renee Blount marks the seventh in-custody death since January 2023 — three of which were confirmed to have involved drugs.
The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office is still investigating the official cause of Blount’s death and could not release any information at this time, a spokesperson said.
The woman who now faces murder charges for Blount’s death is Ashley “Ashly” Gromnicki, who allegedly provided drugs containing fentanyl to Blount after smuggling them into the Maple Street Correctional Center when she was checked in for narcotics and theft charges, Wagstaffe said. Previously, Gromnicki was located at Maguire Correctional Facility for drug detox, he said, where it’s believed she also had the drugs on her.
Gromnicki, who is being held without bail and has also been charged with possession of fentanyl for sale and for illegally bringing fentanyl into the jail, has yet to enter a plea and faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
Last week, 27-year-old Brian Siordia was charged with bringing contraband into the jail, possessing a hard drug with two priors and nine counts of entering a correctional facility as an ex-convict without approval.
Siordia allegedly visited the jail eight previous times before he was eventually apprehended while attempting to visit the facility with drugs on him Sept. 30, Wagstaffe said. Because he is an ex-convict, he wasn’t supposed to have been able to enter the facility without approval, but an oversight occurred, Wagstaffe said.
A press release from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Oct. 7 said several specialized sweeps have occurred at the facility over the past several days to check for any remaining drugs, and preventing contraband from entering the facility is a focus of Sheriff’s Office personnel.
“The Sheriff’s Office uses a multi-pronged approach to prevent contraband from entering its correctional facilities, including using state-of-the-art body scanning machines, K-9 units, search procedures and more to detect and deter the introduction of drugs,” the press release said. “Additionally, the Sheriff’s Office has Narcan available throughout its facilities.”
While the DA’s Office, Sheriff’s Office and Coroner’s Office are all independently investigating Blount’s death per preexisting protocol regarding in-custody death, the DA’s Office would only conduct a larger investigation into drugs in the jails upon request, which has not occurred, Wagstaffe said.
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