A maintenance worker at the Orleans Parish jail, where 10 inmates escaped Friday morning, was arrested after authorities said he helped facilitate the jailbreak.
Sterling Williams, 33, allegedly cut off the water so the inmates could pull the toilet from the wall, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced in a Tuesday press release. He is being held at the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center on charges of principle to simple escape and malfeasance in office.
A photo released by the sheriff’s office last week showed a hole in the wall behind the toilet with phrases such as “To Easy Lol” and “We Innocent” written above it.
“Williams admitted to agents that one of the escapees advised him to turn the water off in the cell where the inmates escaped from,” Murrill said in a news release. “Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape.”
As of Tuesday morning, four of the inmates had been captured, while six remained on the run. More than 200 law enforcement personnel are assisting in the search, officials said. The reward for information leading to the capture of each man has grown to $20,000.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said at a news conference on Friday that there were signs that the escape from the Orleans Parish Justice Center was done with the help of people “inside of our department.” Three employees were placed on leave without pay. It’s not clear if Williams was one of those employees.
The escape was discovered during a routine head count around 8:30 a.m. Friday. Hutson said the inmates broke out by breaching a wall.
Video showed them pulling a cell door off its track, entering the cell and then leaving through a loading dock door. The footage showed the inmates using blankets to scale a fence, the sheriff’s office said. Their clothes were found discarded.
“We will uncover all the facts eventually and anyone who aided and abetted will be prosecuted to the full extent the law allows,” Murrill said in the Tuesday statement. “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.”
