Escapee Says Denver Jail Guard Expected $500K after Busting Him Out

A Denver jail guard claims he was forced to help a prisoner escape on April 7, 2013 to protect his family. But the prisoner, who turned himself in three days later, says the guard helped him because he expected to be paid $500,000 for his assistance.

Matthew Andrews was arrested a day after busting loose Felix Trujillo, 24, from the Denver Detention Center and was charged with aiding an escape. According to court records, Andrews, 36, tearfully confessed to co-workers that the day before the escape someone pointed a gun at him and threatened his family's lives if Andrews didn't get Trujillo out of jail.

But Trujillo, who was to be sentenced on May 13 to 16-24 years for aggravated robbery, says nobody threatened Andrews. Rather, he says, the guard was motivated by greed and desperation to engineer the escape.

"He wanted 250 up front and 250 at the end," Trujillo told a Denver TV station weeks after surrendering to police, adding that Andrews was never paid even a dollar for helping him escape. "He's pretty dumb."

According to Trujillo, Andrews—a two-year veteran of the Denver Sheriff's Department—had viewed the prisoner's Facebook pictures showing him posing with expensive cars and motorcycles, and thought Trujillo was flush with cash. Working in the jail's administrative segregation wing, where Trujillo had been housed since his arrest in August 2012, Andrews purportedly complained to Trujillo about his own finances, hinting he was willing to smuggle in contraband, or more, for the right price.

Eventually, Trujillo says, Andrews smuggled in a cellphone and wanted $1,500, a washer and dryer, and movie tickets. Trujillo says his family paid Andrews the movie tickets and passes to an amusement park, but nothing else.

A couple weeks later, Trujillo says, Andrews approached him about planning an escape. The two agreed that Trujillo's brother would handle the exchange of money. But when Andrews began texting a cellphone number he believed was the brother's, he was actually texting Trujillo himself on the phone Andrews had smuggled in.

Trujillo says he would then cut and paste pictures of "big bags of money" downloaded from Google images into texts to Andrews, "and right when I sent it to him," Trujillo says, "he ran to my cell and said, 'Your brother sent me pictures. I know it's for real!' I was like, 'Yeah.'"

The day of the escape, Trujillo says, Andrews showed up at his cell with a deputy sheriff's uniform, complete with hat, shoes, pants and a jacket for Trujillo to wear out of the jail. Minutes later, the two walked away from the jail—an image captured on surveillance video—and drove to an old apartment building where Andrews thought he would be paid.

After exiting Andrews' car, Trujillo says he walked into the apartment building and then out a back door, while Andrews waited to be paid. "And for an hour," Trujillo says, "(Andrews) kept texting, 'Can I come up? Everyone is starting to get suspicious.'"

Finally, Trujillo says, he texted Andrews that the deal was off and then he destroyed the phone.

Trujillo says he turned himself in once he realized he "couldn't trust anyone." Now he faces additional charges of escape and kidnapping.

Marilyn Reeves, 47, was also arrested for allegedly allowing Trujillo to stay a night at her house after his escape. Andrews, meanwhile, is on paid administrative leave.

Sources: www.denver.cbslocal.com, www.9news.com, www.correctionsone.com

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