Two more people were arrested after authorities said they assisted some of the inmates who escaped an Orleans Parish jail Friday morning.
Louisiana State Police announced the arrests of Cortnie Harris, 32, and Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, in a Wednesday news release. They were charged with one felony count each of accessories after the fact.
Harris was allegedly in contact via phone with an inmate before the escape, police said. The inmate remains on the run.
Harris is also accused of transporting two escapees to multiple locations in New Orleans. Those inmates have not been captured, the release states.
Baptiste was allegedly in contact via phone and social media with inmate Corey Boyd, who was captured Tuesday night. Police said Baptiste provided food to Boyd as he hid inside a residence.
It’s not clear if Baptiste and Harris have obtained attorneys. They are being held at the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center.
Their arrests came one day after Sterling Williams, a jail maintenance worker, was charged in connection with the escape. Ten inmates broke out of the Orleans Parish Justice Center early Friday. Five have not been captured.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Williams aided in the escape by cutting off the water so inmates could pull the toilet from the wall and flee through a hole.
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.
An affidavit for an arrest warrant stated that Williams told authorities that an inmate threatened to shank him if he did not help. Initial information indicated the inmates used an “unknown apparatus to saw steel bars” behind the cell toilet, the affidavit said.
The inmates then bent the bars, fled to an outdoor, unsecured pipe walk area and scaled a jail wall, the document stated. The affidavit said that without Williams’ help, the plan would have failed.
Michael Kennedy, a lawyer for Williams, said the affidavit is a “mischaracterization” and his client turned the water off because the toilet in an unused handicapped cell was clogged, not because he was aiding in their escape.
“What he stated is that one of the inmates standing there did say something in passing about shanking him. He did not consider that a threat,” Kennedy said in a phone call on Wednesday. “He’s worked in the jail for the past five years. Inmates say things. He took it as nothing more than that. So when he was interviewed, did he report that? Yes, because it is a fact. But it’s not a fact that led anywhere.”
Kennedy said it was a deputy who told Williams about the clogged toilet and instructed him to “look at it.” The deputy did not put in a work order for the clog, Kennedy said.
Williams learned of the escape on Friday morning at “the same time as the rest of us,” his attorney said, accusing officials of using his client as a “scapegoat.”
More than 200 law enforcement personnel are assisting in the search for the remaining escapees, officials said. The reward for information leading to the capture of each man has grown to $20,000.
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