A prison escape had people living in upstate New York, living in fear for weeks. Now LEX 18 News learned an escape plan from a jail, was hatched in Central Kentucky.
Two Franklin County inmates were indicted on Tuesday for trying to escape from jail, through a small opening behind a shower. However, the jail and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department foiled their plan.
“You know where there’s a will there’s a way, I guess. And, ha, they really wanted to get out,” said Frankfort resident Pamela Klemens, when she heard the story.
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She was talking about James Robert Goodlett and William Michael Robinson. Both men were already locked up for organized crime, among other charges, when they were indicted on Tuesday for attempting to escape from the Franklin County Jail in May.
“It’s very rare that you are going to see an escape like this be successful,” said Franklin County Commonwealths Attorney Larry Cleveland.
Cleveland said the two men found a small opening behind a metal face plate in an inoperable shower, exposing a pipe chase. Then law enforcement said the duo practiced their escape.
“One of them went through, went a short distance, came back. The other one was too large to squeeze through,” said Cleveland.
Cleveland said the inmates’ plan was to climb into the crawl space and make their way to the roof. However, county officials are not sure what the men would have done when they got there.
“I guess they thought they were going to sprout wings and fly from there. You know, like I said, it wasn’t well thought out,” said Cleveland.
The Sheriff’s department said their deputies and the jail gained information from sources and quickly shut the plan down. The Franklin County Commonwealth’s Attorney said jail officials are taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
James Goodlett and William Robinson are also indicted for criminal mischief and causing more than five-thousand dollars worth of damage to the jail.
“I think the Sheriff’s Department, you know, they did an amazing job getting in there and getting it taken care of,” said Klemens.
In a statement Franklin County Jailer Rick Rogers said, “during my years of service her at the Franklin County Regional Jail, this is the most credible escape attempt from the secure portion of the jail I can remember.”
Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton added “that because of the great working relationship between the Sheriff’s Office and the Jailer’s team we were very successful in preventing an escape from our jail. Detectives and Deputy Jailer’s did an excellent job on this case.”
People in Franklin County said they’re sure this escape plan will be the last.
“Don’t do it, ha. Pat Melton and his deputies are on the ball and going to stop you, so don’t try to do it,” said Klemens.
