Tuesday, December 18, 2007

ESPINOSA AND BLUNT: SECOND ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE, STILL ON THE LOOSE

Otis Blunt’s cell in the Union County Jail in Elizabeth, N.J.

The inmates hid the holes they made with pinup photos,
and used dummies made from bedsheets to hide their absence.


Bold Escape Not First Try for Inmate
By RICHARD G. JONES
Published: December 18, 2007


ELIZABETH, N.J. — There was a gnawing familiarity to the daring weekend escape of two inmates from the most secure part of the Union County jail.

No, it wasn’t simply a case of life imitating art.

The Union County prosecutor, Theodore J. Romankow, acknowledged on Monday that one inmate, Otis Blunt, 32, who escaped Saturday, had tried to flee the same jail in September the same way — by whittling away at the mortar around a cinder block to dislodge it, and then wriggling through the opening.

“He made it this time,” Mr. Romankow conceded at a news conference.

(snip)

Mr. Espinosa, a member of the Bloods street gang, was convicted of aggravated assault in the August 2005 drive-by shooting death of Hassan Jackson, who the authorities said was a member of a rival gang, the Crips. He was at the wheel of a car used in the shooting.

Mr. Blunt was awaiting trial on robbery and weapons charges, also stemming from a 2005 episode, in Hillside, N.J. Because of several prior convictions, Mr. Blunt was also facing a possible long prison sentence.

CATCH THE BAD GUYS: REPORT SIGHTINGS TO THE NJ POLICE...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/nyregion/18prison.html

OR REPORT CRIME TO "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED" TIP LINE 1-800-CRIME TV

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