Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas woman pleaded guilty to helping her boyfriend, the leader of a white supremacist gang that has been accused of a string of brutal tactics, and another inmate escape from a local jail.
Kennan Gililland, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and abetting escape, admitting she helped Wesley Gullet, 31, and Christopher Sanderson, 34, escape on July 29, 2019, by picking them up and driving them 130 miles away from the Jefferson County jail in Pine Bluff, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Gililland also admitted she provided Gullet with some food and other supplies.
Both men put padding in their bunks to make it look like they were asleep, then climbed to the roof of the building and over a fence to escape. Jail staff didn’t realize both inmates were missing until two days later. The two jail staff members on duty at the time of the escape were fired.
On Aug. 1, the chief of the Dover marshal’s office spotted Wesley Gullett while driving in the city and captured him without incident. Sanderson was found later that same day in the Ozark National Forest near Pelsor, a community about 30 miles from Dover. U.S. marshals and Arkansas State Police said he yelled out from the woods and surrendered. He was severely dehydrated and taken to a hospital for treatment.
Federal prosecutors said Gullet is president of the New Aryan Empire, a white-supremacist group accused of violence and drug trafficking. He was operating a methamphetamine ring until federal agents broke it up last year. The trial for the members of the gang has been delayed until August.
Gililland, Gullett and Sanderson are scheduled for a jury trial on the escape charges beginning Monday.