Man gets prison for trying to bribe fellow inmate at Nebraska jail

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A Texas man was sentenced Wednesday for tampering with a witness while he was in a Nebraska jail.

U.S. District Judge John Gerrard sentenced Richard Garza, 61, to 5½ years in prison.

Authorities said Garza, who had been charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, tried to bribe a witness to testify falsely.

At the time, they were both inmates in the Saline County Jail.

Garza used a jail text messaging system to communicate with her and had a relative put money on her account, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He also bought food, clothing and other items from the jail’s commissary for the witness, authorities said.

The goal was to get her to testify that other witnesses had lied about Garza, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Garza was convicted in October. The jury acquitted him of another count of witness tampering and couldn’t reach a verdict on the drug charge.

The drug charge was later dismissed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Garza’s co-defendant in the drug case, Jose Saul Delira, was sentenced last June to 17 years in prison.

After he gets out of prison, Garza will be on supervised release for three years. There is no parole in the federal system.