ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — One of six state prisoners accused in a scheme to help inmates escape from jail accepted a plea deal Wednesday.
Prosecutors said Jeffrey Forbes forged court documents for the escape plan in 2013.
Forbes accepted the plea deal Wednesday. Even though the deal doesn't change his prison time, it might benefit Forbes as far as which prison he spends the rest of his life in.
Forbes will testified against the others to help prosecute the alleged mastermind behind the scheme, Nydeed Nashaddai.
Forbes was sentenced to life in prison nine years ago for shooting and paralyzing an Orange County deputy.
In 2011, the state said Forbes used the forged signatures of State Attorney Jeff Ashton and former Chief Judge Belvin Perry on an order for his 2016 release.
"I was shocked. I had absolutely nothing to do with any of those defendants," said Perry.
Perry is WFTV's legal analyst. Authorities said his signature was cut and pasted from Casey Anthony legal documents that were posted online.
The ruse was detected in 2013 after the bogus orders were filed at the court house and accepted by the Department of Corrections.
Prosecutors said Forbes was just a test case for the plan that was detected in 2013.
But later that year, murderers Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker were set free the same way, walking away from their life sentences.
"You can't eliminate it. The only way to minimize it is to change the mode of operation and verify that they are in fact genuine orders," said Perry.
Jenkins and Walker were later tracked down in the panhandle.
It was the detective who put Forbes away for life who was checking up on him and saw the 2016 release date and knew something was wrong.
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