Two killers accidentally released headed back to prison

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Two convicted Florida murderers captured last weekend after being mistakenly released from prison are on their way back to prison Wednesday.

Charles Walker appeared solemn at the Orange County Jail as he made an appearance before a judge who told him there would be no bond. The judge also told him that the paperwork was in place to return him to custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.

 Walker and Joseph Jenkins were booked into the jail Tuesday afternoon after being returned from Bay County, where they were captured over the weekend.

The two, who were serving life sentences, were released from the Franklin Correctional Institution in Carrabelle, Fla., after forging documents that convinced the Orange County Clerk of Courts and the Department of Corrections that their sentences had been reduced.

The two were captured at a Panama City motel several days after their release.

On Wednesday afternoon a spokesperson for the Orange County Jail said the two men had been transferred to custody of the DOC.

Officials aren't saying which prison they will be returning to. The DOC website said the two are "pending" for Bay Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Panama City.

The Orange County Clerk's office is now at the center of the state's investigation into the men's release from prison.

Investigators said they have a lot of questions about who handled what and how. The forgery escape of Jenkins and Walker from a state prison is alarming, but they weren't the first inmates to pull it off.

"To track the documents through the system and determine who if anyone helped guide the documents through the office of the Orange County Clerk of Court. On this front, the operation at the clerks' office is a significant focus of our investigation," said FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

Those documents were filed at the Clerk's Office, and then passed along to the Department of Corrections.

Nydeed Nashaddai pulled off a similar forgery scheme to get out of the Pinellas County Jail four years ago. His charges were dropped, but authorities figured out the scheme and he was rearrested within hours.

"He was tried for escape and sentenced to 20 years, and was remanded to Franklin Correctional Institution," said Bailey.

Nashaddai was sent to the same prison in north Florida where Jenkins and Walker used fake signatures and court orders to trick several local and state offices into letting them walk free, even though they were sentenced to life.

It was also from Franklin Correctional that inmate Jeff Forbes had fake documents filed to get an earlier release date, but someone caught the attempt before he was released.

WFTV asked Bailey if he thinks Nashaddai told other prisoners about his forgery scheme.

"I can only speculate that. Again, that's part of what we're continuing to unfold," said Bailey.

Emails released by the State Attorney's Office show that in May, an FDLE special agent wrote about meeting and the "system failure" with the Orange County Clerk's Office.

That was after they found out an inmate from Franklin Correctional tried to use his own set of forged documents to get out.

As for other possible arrests, agents said they found an iPad and cellphone in the Panama City Beach motel room where Jenkins and Walker were found. They think those could lead to other suspects who assisted the pair.

WFTV