TALLAHASSEE – Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey announced the arrest of six suspects in connection with the inmate escape scheme investigation. The suspects, all current and former Department of Corrections inmates, are charged with a combined 37 individual crimes.
Nydeed Nashaddai, 48, Suwannee Correctional Institution, 2 counts conspiracy to commit escape, 2 counts principal to escape.
Jeffrey Forbes, 30, Florida State Prison, 1 count escape, forgery, uttering a forgery and conspiracy to commit escape.
Joseph Jenkins, 34, Union Correctional Institution, escape, principle to escape, 2 counts conspiracy to commit escape, 6 counts forgery, 6 counts uttering a forgery.
Charles Walker, 35, Florida State Prison, 1 count escape.
Willie Slater Jr., 36, Orange County Jail, 2 counts principal to escape, 2 counts conspiracy to commit escape, 4 counts uttering a forgery, 1 count tampering.
Terrance Goodman, 37, Panama City, Fla., 1 count harboring a fugitive, 2 counts conspiracy to commit escape.
“FDLE investigators believe Nashaddai was the engineer of the scheme,” said FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey. “He was the first to use it before passing his knowledge onto his fellow inmates.”
“The Department of Corrections takes very seriously its primary mission of protecting the safety of Florida’s families. I’d like to express our deepest gratitude to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for its hard work and due diligence in apprehending these suspects,” said Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Michael Crews. “The Department continues to work closely with our partners in the courts and law enforcement to prevent fraudulent inmate releases, and we have moved forward to outline additional verification requirements, review modified release orders, and evaluate existing inmate law library procedures.”
The investigation shows Nashaddai taught and assisted Jenkins and Forbes in their escape attempts and Jenkins’ subsequent escape in Sept. 2013. Jenkins forged release documents for inmate Walker who escaped in Oct. 2013.
Former inmate Slater helped on the outside ensuring the forged documents were delivered to the Orange County Clerk’s Office.
Goodman, a friend of Jenkins, drove Jenkins and Walker to Panama City and rented them a motel room.
Inmates Jenkins and Walker were serving life sentences for murder from Orange County. Both escaped from Franklin Correctional Institution after the Department of Corrections received fraudulent release documents from the Orange County Clerk of Court. Jenkins escaped on Sept. 27, 2013 and Walker escaped on Oct. 8, 2013.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, along with the Bay County Sheriff's Office, Panama City Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service Task Force arrested both inmates on Oct. 19, 2013 at Coconut Grove Motor Inn in Panama City Beach.
An earlier version of this story is below:
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is announcing more arrests in the case of two murderers who used forged documents to get out of prison.
The department is holding a press conference Thursday to provide details of the arrests.
The agency has been investigating who helped Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker escape from a Franklin County prison and who later helped them hide from authorities when the mistaken release was discovered.
Jenkins and Walker were let out of the prison on Sept. 27 and Oct. 8, respectively, because of fake paperwork that reduced their life sentences to 15 years.
They were captured Oct. 19 in a Panama City Beach motel.
Check back after the 2 p.m. CST news conference for more details.
Below is an earlier version of this report:
More details and more arrests will be announced this afternoon in Tallahassee at a press conference called by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Inmates Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker were serving life sentences for murder from Orange County when they both escaped from Franklin Correctional Institution after the Department of Corrections received fraudulent release documents from the Orange County Clerk of Court.
Jenkins escaped on Sept. 27, 2013 and Walker escaped on Oct. 8, 2013. The men were nabbed together on Oct. 19 at the Coconut Grove Motor Inn in Panama City Beach.
The FDLE has been conducting an investigation into who helped the men escape and whether other inmates have used fraudulent documents to escape from Florida prisons. The Department of Corrections changed the way they handle documents as a result of the case.