More Arrests In Escaped Convict Case

By Matt Wiley

Four months after an inmate who escaped near Wesley Chapel was recaptured in Tampa, several additional arrests have been made in the case as the investigation revealed that several people helped smuggle contraband into a prison.

According to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO), three additional arrests have been made in connection with the escape of Sumter County Correctional Institute inmate Jason Adams, 27, who walked away from a five-man work detail on S.R. 54 near the intersection of Oak Grove Blvd. in Lutz, about two miles west of S.R. 56, on September 8. 

During the investigation — which was still ongoing at our press time —PCSO discovered evidence that “conjugal visits” were being allowed, alcohol was being consumed and that contraband, including tobacco and the synthetic pot known as “Spice,” was being delivered to inmates from civilians to later be smuggled into the prison using buckets and suppositories. 

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Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said during a January 14 press conference that all of the illegal activity occurred under the supervision of the work crew’s supervisor, former Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) officer Henry Blackwelder.

“What we know is that (the suppositories) are used for transporting things like Spice and tobacco into the prison,” Nocco said. “Most people take suitcases when they go on trips and need to carry stuff. Criminals don’t. They’re going into a prison and need to hide (their contraband). They put it somewhere else.”

Blackwelder officially resigned three days after Adams initially was recaptured (after being missing for a day), but he was one of the three people arrested on January 13 and charged with official misconduct, accepting unlawful compensation or reward during official duty, introducing contraband into a state correctional facility and giving intoxicating beverages, articles of clothing and food to inmates. Blackwelder would receive cash for the smuggling operation, Nocco explained.

“(Blackwelder) was basically allowing it to be a party out there,” Nocco said.

PCSO reports that Blackwelder concealed Adams’ escape from FDC and PCSO for about two hours, before reporting it at around 4:30 p.m. Blackwelder told PCSO deputies that he last saw Adams around 4 p.m. However, surveillance footage from the convenience store at S.R. 54 and Foggy Ridge Pkwy. showed Adams purchasing cigarettes just before 3 p.m. Adams then crossed S.R. 54 and had an employee of the Florida Medical Clinic facility call him a cab at 3:15 p.m., which dropped him off at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Tampa at 4:44 p.m. Deputies say that Blackwelder falsified the timeframe of Adams’ escape to conceal his own involvement in the smuggling of the contraband. Through interviews with Adams and additional surveillance footage, it was discovered that Adams also left the work crew on August 28 long enough to purchase booze and cigarettes.

Detectives learned that inmates had been receiving contraband from Hudson resident Stacy Ann Petty, 46, who said that her car broke down near a work camp in November of 2013. She told detectives that the inmates helped her and that she became romantically involved with one inmate and, over time, with several of them, including Adams. 

Nocco said Petty later brought her friend Jessica Morgan (24, also of Hudson) to the work details, adding that Morgan also became romantically involved with several inmates. The women were former co-workers at the Calendar Girls strip club in Hudson. Nocco said that the women would bring tobacco and Spice to the inmates at work detail sites around the county for smuggling in exchange for money. Petty’s arrest report indicates that she admitted to delivering contraband once per week for an entire year, as did Morgan.

Petty and Morgan also were both arrested on January 13 and charged with introducing contraband into a state correctional facility, as well as giving intoxicating beverages and articles of food and clothing to inmates. At our press time, Petty was still in custody in lieu of $20,000 bond, but Morgan was released on Jan. 14 on a bond of the same amount. Blackwelder also was released Jan. 14 on a $40,000 bond.

No additional information was available at our press time.