LF: Autistic 'Prison Houdini' who memorized guards' keys and carved exact replicas for 13 escape attempts in 36 years is denied parole

Title: Autistic 'Prison Houdini' who memorized guards' keys and carved exact replicas for 13 escape attempts in 36 years is denied parole
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... ts-36-years-denied-parole.html
Published: Feb 29, 2016
Author: Hannah Parry
Post Date: 2016-02-29 09:51:12 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1943
Comments: 6

A 'Prison Houdini' who made 13 escape attempts during his 36 years behind bars has been denied parole.

Mark DeFriest is every prison guard's worst nightmare - an autistic savant able to memorize the design of a key hanging on an officer's belt just by looking at it before producing an exact replica in his cell.

Jailed in 1979 for stealing his father's tools, his multiple prison break-outs has seen his original four year sentence turn into decades behind bars - with 27 years in solitary confinement.

A ground breaking documentary about his life saw a record 70 years knocked off his sentence last year and with it, his first chance at legitimate freedom in 36 years.

But that chance was snatched away on Wednesday when a Florida parole board voted not to release the 55-year-old for another six months.

DeFriest's effective release date will now be August so that he can complete a transitional program that teaches life skills, his lawyer John Middleton said.

The date cannot come soon enough for the inmate who was frustrated with the news.

'August? Huh. You've got to be ...,' he said during a call with Gabriel London, the filmmaker who made the documentary which helped change public opinion about case.

'It went well enough today that I would consider it a victory,' said Middleton, who has represented DeFriest for decades.

He added that DeFriest still may not be released in August as he has remaining time to serve for infractions committed while imprisoned in California and Alabama. Only if those penalties are lifted will he be paroled in six months.

DeFriest, who suffers from undiagnosed mental issues, was just 19 when he was jailed for 'stealing' mechanic tools left to him in his father's will - before probate was granted.

While he would have been allowed out aged 23, DeFriest's poor behavior and multiple escapes saw years added to his sentence that would have made him well over 100 on release.

DeFriest has attempted escape 13 times, making it out of jail on seven of those occasions, only to later be recaptured.

During one incident he drugged prison guards with LSD to distract them while he made his escape. In another, he hot wired a car and broke into a friend's home.

However, filmmaker London's part-animated 2014 documentaryThe Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest has started to change opinions around his case.

The film focuses on claims that DeFriest is a high functioning autistic which contributed to his inability to follow prison rules.

Even DeFriest's original arrest could be traced back to his mental health issues, London argues.

His family was living in Gadsden County in 1979 when his father, who served in the OSS in the Second World War, died, the Charlotte County Florida Weekly reported.

His father, who believed the Communists were coming to America, had trained his son in survival, avoidance tactics, guns and mechanics.

After he passed away, DeFriest - whose autism meant he struggled to understand the complexities of inheritance law and probate - went to collect the tools his father had bequeathed him, only to have his stepmother call the police.

When officers arrived, the teenager panicked and ran. When the cops finally caught up with him they discovered he had a gun on him - that had never been taken out during the incident.

DeFriest's four year sentence spiraled into almost decades behind bars - 27 of those in solitary confinement - after the genius escape artist's multiple break outs (pictured with a black eye while in prison)

DeFriest was originally jailed for stealing mechanic tools left to him in his father's will - before probate was granted (pictured as a child with his father)

Four out of five psychiatrists testified that he was mentally ill and should not be sent to jail. The fifth has since recounted his statement.

Despite the testimonies, he was jailed for four years - a sentence that would turn into a life term.

'We're punishing him for being mentally ill. That's what's happening here,' DeFriest's attorney John Middleton told the Miami Herald in 2014.

'Mark is not a violent person, has never hurt anybody. He's been his own worst enemy in jail by escaping and committing some crimes,' Middleton told the Commission on Offender Review.

Things snowballed from there and during his first escape he climbed over razor wire and ran.

In all, he had seven successful escapes in 13 attempts. He was also charged with stealing a car at gunpoint and breaking into a friend's home after one escape.

Each offense added more time to his sentence, and behavior problems gave the parole commission no reason to move up his release date. He has nearly 400 disciplinary reports on file, including 65 from 1983 alone.

Middleton said that in one incident, DeFriest duplicated the master key at Florida State Prison, the toughest in the state's system, and let out fellow inmates to roam around.

'He has a meticulous, disciplined, incredibly skilled mechanical mind that can pick up anything,' London said.

Attorney Middleton had been working with DeFriest's wife Bonnie, 85, whom he met through a pen pal scheme and married in jail, for the past 15 years to get the Florida parole board to reconsider the inmate's case

After glancing at keys, London said DeFriest was able to memorize the patterns and fabricate his own.

But he also used his skills to create intricate art out of materials like paper chip bag foil and Popsicle sticks.

After a 1981 escape, Bay County prison authorities placed DeFriest in total darkness with no clothes, no blankets, no toilet paper and no human contact for 11 days. He was often kept in a straight jacket - which he was able to free himself from - and claims he was regularly attacked with pepper spray.

A judge later compared the incarceration to conditions in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp.

Middleton said DeFriest has been assaulted several times in prisons and at one point spent years without being allowed yard time. That's why he kept trying to escape — not because he wasn't willing to complete his sentence, the lawyer said.

DeFriest claims that in a nightmareish ten-year stint, he went without seeing the sun once.

He was being kept on Florida State Prison's now-infamous X-wing - which was based one floor above the room which housed the electric chair and was home to the jail's most terrifying inmates.

At one point DeFriest even agreed to become a 'prison wife' for one of the wing's most feared inmates to try and survive.

Bonnie has been lining up mechanical work for her husband for when, she hopes, he is finally freed from jail

The rest of the time, he spent in his 7-by 8-foot windowless cell - built specifically for him - without access to the prison yard.

The inmate has been kept in out-of-state prisons for his own protection since 1999 after witnessing guards beat another prisoner to death during his time at Florida State. State prison officials won't disclose where he is.

'We are committed to ensuring the safety of our staff and inmates by providing them appropriate security, supervision and care,' said Department of Corrections spokesman McKinley Lewis. The department declined to say anything else about DeFriest.

Middleton had been working with DeFriest's wife Bonnie, 85, whom he met through a pen pal scheme and married in jail, for the past 15 years to get the Florida parole board to reconsider the inmate's case.

Following the award-nominated documentary, a parole board in Tallahassee agreed to reduce DeFriest's release date from 2085 to March 2015 - cutting a record 70 years from his sentence.

Middleton is confident he will succeed outside of prison.

'Mark is not going to go out there and rob stores,' he said. 'This man is not stupid. He's extremely intelligent, and very talented.'

DeFriest's wife, who has been lining up mechanical work for him for his release, said after his sentence was commuted last year that it had been the news 'we hoped for.'

How can one steal something that already belongs to them? The courts misused the law to put an innocent man to jail and ruined his life.

If he had waited for the will to be probated, no crime would have been committed.