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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
June 11, 2008
FORMER CORRECTIONS OFFICER SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON
WICHITA, KAN. – Former corrections officer Amber Lynn Goff, 24, Augusta, Kan., was sentenced Wednesday to 5 years in federal prison for giving guns to two inmates to help them escape from the El Dorado Correctional Facility.
Goff pleaded guilty in April. In her plea, Goff described her role in the Oct. 28, 2007, escape of Steven Ford and Jesse Bell, from the time she received a cell phone call that evening from Ford to the time she drove Ford and Bell out of Kansas. According to her plea:
– Goff took three firearms from the residence of Grant and Laurie Nutter in Augusta, Kan.: a Glock .40 caliber pistol, a Smith & Wesson .357 caliber revolver, and a Sterling Arms .22 caliber pistol.
– After receiving a phone call from Ford, Goff drove south from Highway 254 down Stone Road past the Butler County Jail. She drove near the firing range and parked by a gate across an access road to the grounds of El Dorado Correctional Facility.
– She used bolt cutters to cut through a padlock securing the outer gate and drove onto the grounds of the correctional facility.
– She used bolt cutters to cut through one of the fences on the facility and wire cutters to cut through another fence on the facility. She provided a pair of wire cutters as well as guns to Ford and Bell, who escaped from the facility on foot.
– Goff, Ford and Bell returned to Goff’s car and she drove them away from the prison. They abandoned Goff’s car in a parking lot in Augusta and got into a car she had rented. Goff drove Ford and Bell out of Kansas and into Oklahoma. They were arrested Oct. 31, 2007, in Grants, New Mexico.
U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren commended Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the Kansas Department of Corrections, law enforcement officials in Grants, N.M., and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Treaster for their work on the case.
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