Deputies: Inmate charged with trying to escape Lake County jail accused of killing 84-year-old woman

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — When Ted Kollen retires from the priesthood later this year, he and his wife will live in the home once owned by homicide victim Bernadine Montgomery.

The 84-year-old woman was killed in June, and one of the suspects in her death was allegedly caught trying to break out of the Lake County Detention Center Wednesday with two other inmates, deputies said.

The inmates were allegedly caught trying to break out of the maximum security area with a broom handle and rope made of sheets tied together, investigators said.

The men, David Mariotti, Jesse Jordan and Kendall Wilbanks, were caught Wednesday morning when deputies noticed the window of their cell had been broken, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.

Two of the inmates, including Mariotti, who is accused in Montgomery's death, were being held on murder charges, investigators said.

Kollen remembers Montgomery as an active part of the community and someone who had an amazing green thumb.

"She was a master gardener, I heard," he said. "And (she) sang in the choir at her church. (She was) very active in Morrison Methodist Church here in Leesburg."

Sheriff's office spokesman Lt. John Harrell praised the deputy who spotted the cracked window Wednesday.

"Quite honestly, when I have looked at the pictures, it was hard to see in some of the pictures that it was broken," Harrell said. "But I guess that goes to show (the deputy) was really paying close attention to what he was doing."

When deputies responded to the cell, they found that someone had used a wooden broom handle to break out the window, the sheriff’s office said.

Mariotti and Jordan were being held on murder charges, investigators said.

An administrative investigation was initiated into how the men were able to get as far as they did in their alleged escape attempt, deputies said.

All three inmates were charged with attempted escape, the sheriff’s office said.

Cox Media Group