New Orleans jail worker gets 2.5 years in prison for enabling brazen 10-inmate escape

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans jail worker received a 2.5-year prison sentence Thursday for enabling 10 inmates to escape through a hole behind a toilet after he turned off its water.

Custodian Sterling Williams, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of malfeasance in office for clearing the way for one of the largest jailbreaks in recent U.S. history. In May 2025, after Williams shut off the water in a cell, 10 inmates removed a toilet, crawled through a gap in the wall and scaled a fence out of the jail. They left behind a scrawled graffiti note reading “To Easy LoL.”

Williams’ attorney, Michael Kennedy, said that Williams did not intentionally help the escapees but acknowledged making mistakes. Williams should have had a work order generated before shutting off the water for the clogged toilet, his attorney said.

“He does admit that he failed to follow protocol in a job as a public employee, and that it is possible that those actions aided in a plan hatched by 10 inmates to escape,” Kennedy said. “But again, without Mr. Williams’ knowledge.”

An additional 2.5 years of Williams’ sentence is suspended, and he will also receive three years of probation. The state dropped 10 charges against him of being a principal to aggravated escape, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in Louisiana.

All 10 of the inmates were eventually captured, though one convicted murderer remained on the run for five months before being discovered hiding beneath a house in Atlanta. They are all facing charges of aggravated escape and are scheduled for jury trial in April.

Along with Williams, at least 14 other people, many of them friends and family of the escapees, were arrested and accused of aiding in the escape, including by providing food, cash, transport and shelter.

Earlier this year, a grand jury handed down a 30-count indictment against then-Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, for malfeasance, obstruction of justice and falsifying public records. While Hutson is not accused of helping the inmates pull off the escape, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said a state probe found that Hutson’s poor management led to the jailbreak.

Bianka Brown, the chief financial officer of the sheriff’s office, was also indicted on 20 similar charges.

Hutson and Brown have pleaded not guilty.

___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.