Philadelphia Man Gets Longer Sentence After Bringing Knife Into Criminal Justice Center
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --Authorities say potential tragedy was prevented by an alert Philadelphia deputy sheriff. And now a 21-year-old Philadelphia man, awaiting trial for various felonies including shooting three police officers, has been convicted of carrying a homemade knife discovered as he was on his way to a hearing at the criminal justice center.
Prosecutor Mark Gilson says defendant Nasuil Martinez was desperate, he was facing multiple serious charges, and he sharpened a metal piece in a wrist brace into a shank or shiv about seven inches long.
"Clearly the circumstances that were going on in Nasuil Martinez's life back in April when he possessed this tend to prove that he was thinking or contemplating stabbing his way out of custody by stabbing a deputy sheriff in the courthouse, possibly taking that deputy's gun and shooting his way out of the courthouse," said Gilson.
But deputy sheriff Arthur Evans found the weapon as Martinez boarded a bus at the prison.
The defense says the metal piece was part of the brace and maintains there's no evidence Martinez sharpened it or planned the brazen escape attempt alleged by the prosecution.
Reported By Tony Hanson, KYW Newsradio
