By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) – A maintenance worker at a New Orleans jail was under arrest, accused of helping 10 inmates escape last week, including some accused of murder, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said on Tuesday.
The worker, Sterling Williams, 33, admitted to agents that he turned off the water supply to a cell at the request of one of the inmates, Murrill said in a statement on Tuesday. That allowed the escapees to tear a sink and toilet off the wall, creating a hole through which they fled.
Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams did as he was asked, “allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape,” the statement said.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Williams said that one of the inmates threatened to cut him with a “shank” – or a homemade knife – if he failed to comply.
It was unclear whether Williams was represented by an attorney.
Williams, who worked in maintenance at the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, was arrested on Monday, said Lester Duhe, a press secretary for the attorney general, who described the investigation as ongoing.
He was booked at Orleans Parish jail, then relocated to another facility and charged with 10 counts of simple escape and malfeasance in office.
Since the escape, four of the inmates have been captured, and a manhunt continues for the other six, authorities said.
The Orleans Parish Justice Center, which mostly holds people awaiting trial or sentencing, discovered the inmates, ages 19 to 42, were missing during a routine head count on Friday morning, officials have said.
The escapees broke out around 1 a.m. They first pulled a sliding cell door off its tracks, then breached a wall by ripping away the toilet and sink, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said on Friday.
Security video captured the men fleeing via a loading dock, scaling a wall and running across a nearby highway, she said.
In the affidavit, authorities placed the blame squarely on Williams.
“If the inmates removed the sink in the cell and disconnected the rest of the plumbing with the water still on, the plan to escape would not have been successful,” it said.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
