A law enforcement vehicle pulled over on I-95 in Waltham, Massachusetts, amid the search for an escaped prisoner on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024.
An inmate who escaped from custody during a traffic jam in Waltham, Massachusetts, has pleaded guilty in the February incident.
Victor Rodriguez De Moura-Pereira, 20, was being transported in a Plymouth County Sheriff's Department van when he escaped on Interstate 95 on Feb. 26. Pothole repair on the highway had traffic backed up for miles at the time.
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Rodrigues entered the plea on Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts said Monday. A federal judge sentenced him to time-served, which prosecutors note was about five weeks in prison, to be followed by a year of supervised release.
He was then transferred into the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has begun removal proceedings.
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Prosecutors say police in Framingham approached Rodrigues on Feb. 25, the day before the escape, for an outstanding warrant. He allegedly resisted arrest. He was put in the custody of immigration officials at the time.
He was being taken to the Wyatt Detention Center when, according to prosecutors, he tried to escape multiple times, including by trying to unlock a van door by pulling on a lock pin with his teeth.
"Rodrigues then forced his body through a small gap between the vehicle's rear cage and passenger side window and into the vehicle's storage compartment, where he pulled the emergency release pull tab, opened the rear door and jumped out onto the highway when the vehicle entered standstill traffic," the U.S. Attorney's Office wrote. "After exiting the transport van, Rodrigues ran down the middle of the highway and disappeared."
Authorities say Rodrigues was found about a quarter mile away hiding in a fenced-in area behind a building in Waltham.
