The Orleans Parish Justice Center employee accused of helping 10 inmates escape says he did so because one of the inmates threatened to shank him if he didn't.
Sterling Williams was booked into the Plaquemines Parish Jail early Tuesday morning. Williams, 33, is facing one count of malfeasance in office and 10 counts of simple escape.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit released by the Louisiana Attorney General's Office, Williams told investigators that he turned off the water to the cell from which the inmates escaped. That allowed the inmates to remove a sink toilet combination from a cell.
The investigators added that the 10 inmates then used an unknown item to saw and bend the steel bars behind that sink. After bending the bars, the inmates broke free through an "outdoor unsecured pipe walk area" before climbing a wall to escape the jail's premises.
The affidavit states that Williams told investigators that one of the escapees, Antoine Massey, threatened to shank him if he refused to shut off the water. Investigators also say that Williams told them that two other inmates attempted to steal his phone and to force him to bring a book with Cash App information to his cousin "in the next pod over." The affidavit notes that Williams was seen on camera standing in an open door talking with Massey, Derrick Groves, and a third unidentified inmate.
Groves was recently convicted of a 2018 double murder. Massey was being held in the OPJC on domestic abuse and car theft charges. He's wanted in St. Tammany Parish for kidnapping and rape.
Despite Williams's claims, investigators found that he "willfully and maliciously assisted with the escape of the 10 inmates" and that he "did not notify authorities" about the escape. Investigators also accused Williams of initially being "very evasive and untruthful."
The escape remains under investigation.
Related
