A Harford County Detention Center inmate was found guilty of drug possession with intent to distribute after telling someone in a recorded jail call about having the contraband.

Brandon Randall, 30, of Aberdeen, was found guilty of possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute cocaine; contraband with intent to distribute; two counts of possession of contraband in a place of confinement and two counts of controlled dangerous substance possession, not cannabis.

The charges date to August 2024, around 9:30 a.m., when deputies with the detention center’s Gang Intelligence Unit were informed that Randall had alluded to having contraband in his cell in a phone call from the jail, the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office said.

The state’s attorney’s office said the person Randall was on the phone with asked, “You didn’t have nothing on you, did you?”

To which prosecutors said Randall replied, “Yeah, I got it. I got it literally. It was easy. That’s how I’m ‘gonna’ eat” — alluding to either selling or trading the drugs to get additional food in the detention center.

Deputies searched Randall’s cell and found Suboxone, a Schedule II controlled dangerous substance that is prescribed to treat opioid disorder, and seven small, yellow containers filled with cocaine, according to prosecutors.

During the three-day trial that concluded June 27 in Harford County Circuit Court, an expert witness testified that Randall’s statements on the phone call were about him selling contraband to other inmates, and that the cocaine separated into seven containers indicated intent to distribute.

Randall’s public defender could not be reached for comment. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

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