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| Sing Sing escape plot foiled |
| By The White Plains Journal News |
| Published: 02/09/2004 |
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Two inmates tried to bust their way out of Sing Sing last year in a scheme that involved impersonating officers, smuggling guns and fake uniforms into the maximum security prison, and bribing a correction officer, authorities said last week. The plot led to the arrests of seven people - the inmates, the officer and four accused accomplices - during an eight-month investigation, they said. The probe began after the prison was locked down May 7, when one of the accomplices tried to get into the prison, they said. It was revealed last week that the group had twice before gone to the prison to spring the inmates. On May 6, two of the plotters got inside with loaded handguns but left when one got too nervous to go through with it, Westchester County (N.Y.) District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said. The group also had gone there in April. The mastermind was identified as Nicholas "Puzz" Zimmerman, a rapper convicted of gun possession in 2001, who was trying to escape with fellow inmate Steven Finley, Pirro said. She said Zimmerman recruited two of his girlfriends, Jatanya Belnavis and Latrina Boyd, and bribed correction officer Quangtrice Wilson to help. The girlfriends offered two Brooklyn men, Tony Dubose and Barry Alexander, $5,000 each to help them plan the breakout, with a promise of $10,000 more if it were successful, authorities said. The plan was foiled when officers became suspicious of Dubose on May 7, when he entered Sing Sing with a fake ID and claimed he was a correction officer transferred from Fishkill. Dubose fled after saying he was going to his car to get his transfer papers, authorities said, but he left behind a bag with pepper spray and fake uniforms, prompting officials to lock down the prison. The investigation, conducted by state police, the state Department of Correction and the District Attorney's Public Integrity Bureau, is continuing, and additional arrests and charges were expected. |
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