By David Porter
Associated Press
ELIZABETH, N.J. — Two New Jersey men whose escape from jail led to the suicide of a corrections officer and spurred comparisons to the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” were given maximum prison sentences Friday by a judge who rejected their attorneys’ pleas for leniency.
Otis Blunt and Jose Espinosa each received five years in prison for the December 2007 breakout from the Union County Jail that exposed flaws in the jail’s security measures and prompted numerous reforms. They had each pleaded guilty in May.
Though Blunt, 34, eventually was acquitted of the robbery charge he was jailed for at the time of the escape, state Superior Court Judge Joseph Donohue noted Friday that his criminal past includes a 1995 conviction for robbery and aggravated assault.
“He has to be isolated and kept away from law-abiding citizens,” the judge said. “There is some risk of re-offense.”
As he left the courtroom Friday, Blunt smiled at a photographer and gave a thumbs-up sign.
The 21-year-old Espinosa’s sentence will be tacked on to the 17-year sentence he is serving for aggravated manslaughter. Both men received more than a year’s credit for time served.
Marc D’Arienzo, an attorney for Espinosa, attempted to portray his client as a dupe of the older, more manipulative Blunt.
“He was no babe in the woods,” Assistant Union County Prosecutor Ann Rubin countered. “He had more than enough motivation on his own to dig his way out over a two-month period and jump off the roof.”
The two were at large for nearly a month before they were caught, Espinosa in an apartment less than a mile from the jail and Blunt in a hotel in Mexico City. Through a friend, Blunt contacted representatives of the Rev. Al Sharpton--who traveled to Mexico to effect his surrender—but was captured 24 hours after breaking off the dialogue.
While Blunt and Espinosa were on the lam, corrections officer Rudolph Zurick, a married father with a 4-year-old daughter, fatally shot himself at his South Amboy home before he was scheduled to be questioned about the breakout.
Zurick’s suicide came days after a note found in Espinosa’s cell was published that taunted Zurick and thanked him for his “help” in the escape. Prison and law enforcement officials have said Zurick was not under suspicion of aiding the duo.
Five corrections officers and supervisors were suspended after the escape.
Kenneth Burkert, state delegate for the corrections officers union, said Friday that jail employees were still coming to grips with Zurick’s death.
“Some people have gone for counseling, and it definitely changed the entire place in terms of morale, and not in a good way,” Burkert said.
Authorities said Blunt and Espinosa dug through the cinderblocks in their adjoining cells with a 10-pound steel valve wheel stolen from an area of the jail that was left unlocked, and hid the holes under photos of bikini-clad women, as in the movie.
They piled sheets under their blankets to appear they were sleeping and squeezed through the holes onto a third-floor roof, jumped or shimmied down and climbed over a 25-foot fence topped by razor wire.
Guards did not notice they were gone until nearly 20 hours later, one of numerous flaws uncovered by an investigation into the escape. The county prosecutor’s office found that guards routinely ignored rules governing head counts and cell searches.
Most damningly, the investigation revealed that random searches that were required on a “routine and continuing basis” hadn’t been conducted in the two men’s cells for two months before the escape.
Since then, security cameras and extra razor wire have been added and random searches increased at the jail.