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Jailhouse informant case arising at Great Falls Regional Prison. Inmate Robert Gardner (serving 50 years for deliberate homicide) contacted Great Falls detectives after cellmate Old-Horn disclosed he had acted as a confidential informant and held info on the unsolved murder of Harold Mitchell, Jr. Old-Horn offered information through Gardner hoping Gardner would receive a sentence reduction. District Court suppressed Old-Horn's statements as involuntary (belief of immunity); Montana Supreme Court affirmed new trial and suppression.
Court records and a 1985 LA Times report describe James Dean Cochrum, an Orange County Jail inmate who informed on at least five fellow inmates, including Adolpho Aguirre and Elliott Beal, claiming to overhear confessions in separate murder cases. Jail informants testified in more than 100 major Orange County cases over five years.
Court filings in the Brandon Price habeas case allege San Diego County DA's office used Jarius Bush as a serial jailhouse informant across multiple gang murder cases, including James Carter, Darius Days, Lamar Long, and Jamar Phillips. Bush was moved cell-to-cell at investigators' behest and received a sentence reduction after testifying.
California Supreme Court affirmed Christopher Towler's second-degree murder conviction for killing Ron Stone, a police drug informant who introduced undercover Sacramento narcotics agents to Towler. Towler repeatedly called Stone a 'snitch' and threatened to kill him before Stone's disappearance in January 1978.