Inmate’s sister arranged getaway car for brother’s escape from Virginia jail, court documents show
By Dakin Andone, CNN
An inmate’s sister has been charged in federal court in North Carolina with helping her brother escape from a Virginia jail over the weekend by paying $2,500 to arrange for the getaway car, court documents show.
Adriana Marin-Sotelo faces a charge of conspiracy to instigate or assist escape, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Marin-Sotelo was arrested in Guilford County, CNN affiliate WSOC reported, citing investigators. CNN has reached out to the federal public defender’s office for comment.
Her brother, Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo, has been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Wake County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Deputy Ned Byrd last August, according to the FBI.
The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, saying the 26-year-old with ties to North Carolina and Mexico should be considered armed and dangerous. The FBI describes him as Hispanic, standing 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds.
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo had been held at the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Virginia, where he was awaiting sentencing next month after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by unlawful on alien, the court documents show.
He and another inmate, Bruce Callahan, have been at large since escaping the jail early Sunday, authorities said.
After he escaped in what the FBI said was an early 2000 red or burgundy Ford Mustang, investigators listened to phone calls Marin-Sotelo made in the days prior, according to an affidavit in support of the complaint against his sister.
Among them was one call made Saturday evening, in which the inmate told his sister to get a car to an unidentified, unindicted co-conspirator and pay $2,500 for that individual to drop the car off in the jail parking lot, the affidavit says.
The next morning, at about 1:40 a.m., the inmate is seen in surveillance footage climbing over the jail fence, the affidavit says. Surveillance footage again captured him four hours later leaving the parking lot in a red Mustang.
Another unindicted co-conspirator — a Piedmont Regional Jail inmate — told investigators Monday that Marin-Sotelo purchased the vehicle and gave it to the other co-conspirator, the affidavit says. The latter in turn told investigators Marin-Sotelo bought the car for $3,000 and purchased a paper license plate to put on it, according to the affidavit.
Callahan, meanwhile, was being held on federal drug and weapons charges, per the US Marshals Service, which is leading the search for the 44-year-old. The agency is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to his capture, describing him as White, 5-foot-6 and 145 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.
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CNN’s Claudia Dominguez contributed to this report.
