Fifth person arrested, accused of aiding inmates in New Orleans jail escape
A fifth person has been arrested in connection with the escape of 10 inmates last week from a New Orleans jail, authorities said.
New Orleans police said Friday that 29-year-old Casey Smith allegedly assisted two of the 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center. Smith was booked for accessory after the fact to simple escape, police said.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also announced Friday that an inmate who was already incarcerated, Trevon Williams, will face new charges in connection to the escape.
Smith's arrest comes less than a day after Louisiana State Police announced 59-year-old Connie Weeden of Slidell, Louisiana, has been taken into custody on one felony count of being an accessory after the fact.
According to state police, Weeden was in contact with escapee Jermaine Donald by phone both before and after his jailbreak. She also provided him with cash via a cell phone app after his escape.
Donald is one of five escaped inmates who remain at large. Five have been captured.
On Monday, Sterling Williams, a 33-year-old maintenance worker at the jail, was arrested on charges that he shut off water to a cell that the inmates used in the escape by removing a toilet from the wall, Murrill's office said.
Then on Wednesday, state police reported that 32-year-old Cortnie Harris of New Orleans, and 38-year-old Corvanntay Baptiste of Slidell, were also arrested on charges of being accessories after the fact.
The brazen escape from the Orleans Parish Justice Center occurred in the early morning hours of May 16. The escape, part of which was captured on surveillance video, showed the inmates removing a jail cell door off its track and breaching a wall behind the toilet of a cell.
The inmates climbed a fence that separated the jail from a construction site, and eventually sprinted across a freeway. The escape wasn't discovered until more than seven hours later, at about 8:30 a.m. on May 19.
Weeden has been booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center.