Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson has sentenced a 52-year-old ex- corrections officer to 3-1/2 years in prison and two years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute.

Richard Ascencio, who had been a 20-year veteran with the Department of Public Safety, was sentenced Tuesday and had pleaded guilty Sept. 21, 2022, to the charges.

He admitted to smuggling methamphetamine into the Oahu Community Correctional Center to provide to an inmate in exchange for payments in cash.

He was charged in a superseding indictment along with Robert S. Gibson, the inmate who planned the conspiracy and instructed his girlfriend Ceceliacharity Hilo and stepsister Keicha Brunn-Kekuewa on how to acquire, package and deliver methamphetamine.

Ascensio was allowed to remain out on bail until he self-surrenders Feb. 20.

The Wahiawa man had worked from 2000 until his arrest in 2020 as a correctional officer at OCCC.

Ascensio obtained the meth from co-conspirators outside OCCC, hid it in his backpack, then used his position as a corrections officer to try to bypass security measures and smuggle the drugs into the jail.

The FBI, with help from the Honolulu Police Department, investigated the drug smuggling operation and discovered that Ascencio tried on Feb. 12, 2020, to smuggle meth into OCCC. When he reported for duty that day, OCCC investigators found 11 packets of meth inside his backpack.

Brunn-Kekuewa, a former head coach of the Sacred Hearts Academy softball team, stepped down after the 2022 season.

She took a plea agreement Nov. 1 and pleaded guilty to the meth conspiracy in exchange for dropping a firearm charge for smuggling a gun to her stepbrother through Ascencio. She was sentenced in May to one year and eight months.

Gibson, Brunn-Kekuewa’s stepbrother, received eight years and four months in prison.

Investigators learned from his calls several times a day to his girlfriend, Hilo, from OCCC that she had already acquired the meth and was separating it for distribution. Hilo got two years and three months for her role in the conspiracy.

Brunn-Kekuewa’s plea agreement shows she met Feb. 11, 2020, with Ascencio at a Whitmore Village convenience store. Security camera footage showed her delivering the meth she received from Hilo to Ascencio.

“Rather than protect the community from the scourge of methamphetamine, as Ascencio was charged with doing as a correctional officer, he instead perpetuated the devastating cycle of addiction among inmates and endangered the welfare of his co-workers,” said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors in a written statement.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Steven Merrill said, “The FBI will not tolerate those who are in a position of trust to violate that trust by bringing illegal drugs into our correctional facilities.”