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| Couple pleads guilty to helping in L.A. prison escape plan |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/20/2003 |
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A couple pleaded guilty last week to helping an alleged member of a Russian kidnapping ring in his foiled attempt to break out of a federal prison in California. Thomas Tynan and his wife, Sabrina, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nora Manella to one count each of conspiring to help an inmate escape. They will be sentenced in February and face up to five years in prison. Thomas Tynan, 45, is the former cellmate of Iouri Mikhel, who is one of five defendants accused of abducting two Russian immigrants and killing them after ransom arrangements were made. The victims' bodies and those of three other Russian immigrants were found in a reservoir near Yosemite National Park in October 2001 and March 2002. All had been suffocated. Mikhel, 38, allegedly lowered a rope in February from his fifth-floor prison cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center to pick up a pillowcase packed with marijuana and two phones. The phones were used to coordinate a second haul later that month in which Mikhel obtained pliers, bolt cutters and other tools, according to an FBI affidavit. He also acquired a video camera that he planned to use to record his escape. The plan was thwarted March 7 when guards searching Mikhel's cell found the tools and a large hole behind a mirror that led to a stairwell. Thomas Tynan was promised a large sum of money to help Mikhel with the escape plan, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Vaughn. Sabrina Tynan agreed to help from the outside and recruited her brother-in-law, Michael, to come to California, Vaughn said. Michael Tynan pleaded guilty last week to the same charge. Prosecutors have not yet decided if they will seek the death penalty against Mikhel and two other defendants for kidnapping resulting in death. In July, prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty against Natalya Solvyeva, 28, and Aleksujus Markovskis, 29, both of Los Angeles. |
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