Jail worker in New Orleans apprehended, charged with aiding large-scale prison break of detainees.
A maintenance employee at New Orleans' Orleans Parish Justice Center has been taken into custody for allegedly helping ten inmates to escape from the facility. Sterling Williams, aged 33, was arrested and booked into jail on Tuesday, according to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Investigations reveal that Williams is accused of turning off the water supply to a toilet to create an opening for the inmates' escape. Suspects, including three charged with second-degree murder who remain at large, were able to remove the toilet from its hinges and make their way out of the cell.
Williams faces charges of complicity in simple escape and malfeasance in office. He was initially detained at the Orleans Parish Jail but was later moved to another facility, Murrill stated. Four other employees of the jail have been suspended in connection to the investigation.
In a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, Murrill claimed that Williams admitted to agents that he played a part in facilitating the escape. She added that Williams allegedly acted under the advice of one of the escapees who instructed him to shut off the water.
According to an arrest affidavit, Williams told investigators that one of the inmates threatened to harm him if he did not assist with the escape plan. On video surveillance footage, Williams is observed standing in the open door of a jail pod, conversing with some of the escaped inmates.
Among the escaped inmates is Derrick Groves, recently convicted of second-degree murder, facing a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. In an interview, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams deemed the mass escape an inside job, attributing it to the inmates manageably fitting into a cell designed to accommodate only two people and executing their escape through concrete, rebar, and barbed wire with internal help.
The manhunt for the at-large inmates entered its fifth day on Tuesday. Later in the day, authorities apprehended Corey Boyd, who was charged with second-degree murder before his escape. The remaining escapees, Derrick Groves, Lenton Vanburen, and Jermaine Donald, who are charged with second-degree murder, still evade capture.
The escape was initially discovered during a routine headcount at the Orleans Justice Center on Friday morning. The inmates are believed to have escaped the facility around 1 a.m. on Friday. The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office is under scrutiny for allegedly failing to immediately notify local police and the public of the breakout, with District Attorney Jason Williams accusing the oversight of undermining the potential participation of the public and law enforcement in the manhunt.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff, Susan Hutson, accepted blame for the breach and pledged to conduct a comprehensive investigation, both internally and externally, and to provide full cooperation to the independent investigation being led by the Louisiana Attorney General. Three of the escapees were recaptured within 24 hours of the escape, while the remaining inmates made use of a hole behind a toilet to enter a wall, a loading dock, and eventually scale the exterior wall and cross a freeway to elude authorities.
The maintenance employee, Sterling Williams, admitted in an interview to authorities that he intentionally created an opening for the inmates' escape by turning off the water supply to a toilet, as stated by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill. The video surveillance footage shows Williams conversing with some of the escaped inmates in a jail pod. Several general news outlets, as well as crime-and-justice channels, have covered the story of the mass escape from the Orleans Parish Justice Center, including the role of Williams and the inmates still at large.
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