ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Jeffery Forbes is in prison for life after shooting and paralyzing an Orange County Deputy nine years ago.
In 2011, investigators said he tried to forge the signatures of a state attorney and judge on an order that would allow his release in 2016.
He was caught, and is expected to take a plea deal that would involve him testifying against the alleged mastermind of the scheme, Nydeed Nashaddai.
The state believes Nashaddai used Forbes as a test to see if the ploy would work.
While it didn’t, two other inmates, convicted murderers Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, did the same thing in 2013 and were able to walk away from their life sentences, investigators said.
In their cases, the signature of former Chief Judge Belvin Perry, now a WFTV legal analyst, was lifted from online documents from the Casey Anthony trial.
“I was shocked,” Perry said. “I had absolutely nothing to do with any of those defendants.”
Jenkins and Walker were later recaptured in Panama City.
Jenkins and Terrance Goodman, who is accused of helping the pair after their escape, are also expected to enter pleas soon, state attorneys said.