Tennessee inmate escaped prison, then attempted to sneak back in with contraband, indictment says

A Tennessee inmate found escaping prison was the easy part -- getting back in proved much more difficult.

Robert Fusco, who is already serving a 68-year sentence for especially aggravated kidnapping, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to accusations he escaped prison only to attempt to sneak back in days later with a cache of contraband.

Fusco, 37, escaped from the Morgan County Correctional Complex, a minimum-security facility, on Jan. 5 and was captured two days later trying to smuggle drugs, cell phones and tobacco into the prison, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

He was reportedly trying to sneak in the illicit items to sell on the prison’s black market, the newspaper reported. Neither the state’s department of correction nor prosecutors have revealed how Fusco escaped the prison.

Fusco was among eight people, including two former correctional officers, indicted earlier this month as part of contraband scheme.

Among those also charged was Fusco’s former cellmate, 30-year-old Jarrett Tolley, who is accused of smuggling hacksaw blades into the prison. He now identifies as a woman and lives under the name Alyssa Tolley, the newspaper reported.

William Richard, 68; Cecil Kendall, 35; and Ethan Self, 26 – all inmates at the Morgan County Correction Complex – were charged with aiding Fusco in the contraband scheme.

All four inmates made brief appearances during an arraignment Tuesday.

Josh Sexton, 34, who served as a past president of the local correctional officers’ union, is accused of attempting to smuggle unspecified contraband into the prison by hiding the items “under his groin,” according to the Sentinel, citing the indictment paperwork.

Twenty-nine-year-old ex-correctional officer Megan Cheryl Jones was charged with having sexual contact with Fusco and also smuggling cell phones into the prison.