A woman working at the Arapahoe County jail was arrested for allegedly having an "inappropriate relationship" with an inmate accused of killing a murder witness and the victim's fiancee.

Nicole Sue Beal, 23, is accused of exchanging mail and phone calls with Robert Keith Ray, a man now serving 108 years in the Department of Corrections for his role in a 2004 Aurora slaying.

Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Tuesday that Beal was arrested and suspended without pay on March 8 after an investigation revealed she made and received phone calls from Ray at her home. When she was arrested, deputies found a 3-inch blade in her purse, Robinson said. She was on duty at the time in a maximum security section of the jail, Robinson said.

"We're not sure what her intentions were, but nonetheless having a weapon in the facility is against our policy and it's against the law," Robinson said.

Ray, 21, was convicted last year of being an accessory to the slaying of 20-year-old Gregory Vann in 2004.

The alleged contact between Beal and Ray happened when he was housed at the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Detention Facility.Robinson said he didn't know when the relationship between Ray and Beal started but that there was no physical contact.

"It was in the very early stages," said Robinson, who described the phone calls as "flirtatious."

Beal, a detention operation technician who was hired in March 2005, was in charge of monitoring jail cameras and opening and closing electronic doors.

Ray and Sir Mario Owens, 22, are awaiting trial in the shooting deaths of Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe, on June 20, 2005, a week before Marshall-Fields was to testify about Vann's death.

The Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office announced last month it will seek the death penalty against Ray and Owens.

Beal faces charges of introducing contraband and first-degree official misconduct. She was released from the Arapahoe County jail on $200,000 bail.

morenoi@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2895