HOUSTON (AP) -- Gov. Rick Perry has ordered a lockdown of Texas prisons and a search of all inmates after a cell phone was confiscated today from a condemned killer.
Investigators allege Richard Tabler's mother bought minutes for the cell phone, which he used to call a legislator and make threatening remarks about the lawmaker's daughters.
Perry says a guard allegedly accepted a bribe to deliver the cell phone.
Lorraine Tabler of Blackshear, Ga., was arrested today at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on charges of providing a prohibited item to an inmate.
The investigation started after Richard Tabler on Oct. 7 started calling Houston's John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
Authorities believe Richard Tabler shared the phone with other death row inmates to make hundreds of calls in the past month.
Richard Tabler was condemned for a 2004 shooting spree that left four dead. The victims had ties to a Killeen strip club.
Perry also ordered the Texas prison board to have all staff and visitors searched.
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