One of the NJ prisoners who escaped from a Union County jail by chiseling through cement blocks (hiding their progress by taping posters over the growing hole) three weeks ago was captured last night. Thanks to a tip, police found Jose Espinosa in an apartment just a few blocks away from the jail.
Espinosa and Otis Blunt somehow acquired wire and were able to use it to "scrape the mortar around two 8-inch-by-16-inch cinderblocks," which they then smashed with a piece of a stolen piece of steam pipe. After escaping the jail, they made a running jump off a landing to make it over a 35 foot tall barbed-wire covered fence. They left dummies in their bed and a note taunting a guard, who later committed suicide (it's believe he was distraught this happened on his watch; authorities have said he did not aid in the prisoners' escape).
The Reverend Al Sharpton entered into the fray by announcing someone associated with one of the prisoners contacted him. Sharpton was trying to broker a "peaceful surrender," to the dismay of some officials, even traveling to Mexico City, but ended up leaving without any success. Sharpton's statement:
I finally spoke with Mr. Blunt briefly late this evening ... I felt it was my moral obligation as a Minister to attempt to facilitate the quick and safe surrender and to work with law enforcement to bring this escape to a close. ... After waiting several hours after my conversation with Mr. Blunt I have not heard further from him. I strongly urge him to surrender to authorities immediately.
Blunt was in the jail for first-degree armed robbery (he shot a convenience store manager). Espinosa, a member of the Bloods, was being held while awaiting sentencing for 2005 manslaughter (a drive-by shooting) conviction. Union County prosecutor Theodore Romankow has called for stricter security at the jail.
