Sterling Williams’ mother has demanded her son’s release following his arrest on Monday for allegedly helping ten prisoners escape from the Orleans Justice Center.
“I love you, son, and we coming,” she said to WVUE. “Stay strong, Sterling. We coming to get you. Sterling Strong. We here for you, Sterling, Mama here for you.”
On Tuesday, Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, stated that a 33-year-old maintenance worker at the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office-run jail has been detained and charged with participating in the escape of ten prisoners last Friday.
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According to court records, Williams informed Louisiana Bureau of Investigation officers that Antoine Massey, one of the five fugitive inmates, had threatened him. According to the affidavit, Massey allegedly threatened to shank Williams if he didn’t turn off the water, according to CBS News.
Williams allegedly told investigators that an inmate “advised him” to cut off the water in the cell that would be used for the escape, which required removing a toilet from the wall, according to a statement released by Murrill.
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According to the complaint, Williams was captured on surveillance footage conversing with Massey and Derrick Groves, another escaped prisoner. In the complaint, Williams informed detectives that Groves reportedly attempted to grab his phone and asked him to deliver a book with Cash App information to Groves’ relative in a different area of the jail. Groves is also on the run.
Meanwhile, Michael Kennedy, Williams’ lawyer, expressed his confidence in his client’s innocence.
“He neither conspired with the escaped prisoners nor did he act out of fear. That is a mischaracterization of facts put forth by the Sheriff’s Department to help ease their own culpability,” Kennedy noted in a statement. “Mr. Williams was performing the duties of his job and nothing more.”
Kennedy claimed that even though no work order had been issued, a female deputy informed Williams that the toilet was overflowing and asked him to inspect it.
The lawyer contended that escaped prisoners blocked the toilet to make sure someone would shut off the water.
Williams faces felony charges of principal to simple escape and malfeasance in office, both felonies.
Murrill claims that Williams shut off the water, allowing the escape to continue.
The prisoners escaped the jail on Friday, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. Three of the detainees were found later in the day. A fourth was caught Monday, according to officials.
The escape began early on Friday morning. Around 12:22 a.m. CDT, the sheriff’s office released security footage showing several prisoners breaking through a cell door. The prisoners then broke through a wall behind the cell’s toilet, according to Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, who spoke to the press.
According to the affidavit, the convicts cut through the steel bars behind the toilet and bent them. In the affidavit, detectives stated that the cell could have flooded if the water hadn’t been turned off, which might have been seen and made the escape less successful.
The sheriff’s office claims that the inmates were captured on camera escaping the building through a neighboring loading dock at roughly 1:00 in the morning. Around 1:19 in the morning, the group ran across Interstate 10 into a neighborhood after climbing over a fence and covering the barbed wire with blankets.
According to the sheriff’s office, the escape went unreported until around 8:30 a.m. Friday. A civilian monitor who was stationed in the area had left for food at the time of the escape, and no sheriff’s deputy was assigned to the area where the inmates started the jailbreak.
The sheriff’s office announced that three employees were placed on unpaid leave while an internal investigation was carried out. It was unclear if Williams was one of the three employees.
Hutson told reporters that the prisoners may have gotten assistance from at least one individual inside the sheriff’s office. She added that the agency has been requesting more than $5 million in funding from local lawmakers for years in order to replace broken locks on cell doors.
Hutson also wrote in a statement posted to social media that she was “temporarily suspending” her reelection campaign as a result of the incident.
“I cannot spend another minute putting politics over your needs,” the sheriff wrote.
The Attorney General reiterated the city’s commitment to the investigation. Murrill wrote in a statement, “We will uncover all the facts eventually, and anyone who aided and abetted will be prosecuted to the full extent the law allows. I encourage anyone who knows anything and even those who may have provided assistance to come forward now to obtain the best possible outcome in their particular case.”
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