Downey woman and former sheriff's employee pleads guilty to money laundering

LOS ANGELES – A Downey woman has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges stemming from a drug-trafficking scheme inside a California state prison, authorities announced today.

LaShawn Anderson, 50, was a civilian employee with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department when she agreed to help a convicted murderer hide income made from selling drugs inside Centinela State Prison in 2017.

In her plea agreement, Anderson admitted to helping Lamont Devault, 49, and others to launder illicit proceeds. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced Aug. 3.

After a three-day trial in February, a federal jury found Devault guilty of three felonies: conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and other controlled substances, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and possession with intent to distribute heroin.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Devault was an inmate at Centinela State Prison in Imperial County in 2017. Devault recruited his son, co-defendant Lamont Devault II, 26, of Long Beach, to obtain narcotics outside the prison supplied by an associate of another inmate, co-defendant Steve Bencom, 39, a.k.a. “Risky” and “Risky Business,” of East Los Angeles.

Devault’s son then supplied the drugs to co-defendant and prison cook Lance Medina, 33, a.k.a. “Droop,” of El Centro, so that Medina could smuggle the drugs into the prison by concealing them in his underwear.

Devault, who coordinated the conspiracy by using a contraband cell phone in prison, then oversaw the distribution of those drugs within the prison through other inmates, including co-defendant Deandre McIntosh, 43, a.k.a. “Casper D,” of Long Beach.

In November 2017, Medina was caught smuggling nearly 54 grams of methamphetamine into the prison. Medina had another 131 grams of methamphetamine and 91 grams of heroin at his home that he was planning to smuggle into the prison at Devault’s direction.

Devault was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison, which will begin if he is paroled in March 2031. He is currently serving a life sentence on a murder charge.

Each of the other suspects were found guilty at their respective trials and are awaiting sentencing.