FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The fourth-floor courtroom inside the Broward County courthouse was crowded when murder suspect Dayonte Resiles escaped from custody, new surveillance video shows.
Resiles, 21, broke free from his handcuffs and shackles during the July 15 courthouse escape and spent five days on the run before he was caught at a Days Inn in West Palm Beach.
Surveillance video released Wednesday by the Broward Sheriff's Office shows a group of jail inmates being escorted into the courtroom at 9:36 a.m. when the first sign of trouble occurs.
Although the video doesn't show Resiles make his getaway, it does show a deputy run across the room and out of the courtroom camera's view. The others in the courtroom turn toward the camera, looking in the direction of Resiles' escape. A few seconds later, several people in the courtroom get out of their seats and walk out of the camera's view.
Eight people -- Winston Russell Jr., LaQuay Stern, twins Kretron Barnes and TreVon Barnes, Francine Mesadieu, Paige Jackson, Armonie Frankson-Dennis and Walter Hart -- have been arrested in connection with the escape.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the twins sat in the courtroom while Russell and Stern waited in Stern's silver BMW on the north side of the courthouse. He said one of the twins coughed into a cellphone as Resiles made his getaway, signaling to Stern and Russell that Resiles was on his way to the car.
According to a Broward Sheriff's Office arrest affidavit, Mesadieu gave Resiles a wig, eye color-changing contacts and clothing in an effort to help him conceal his identity.
Another arrest affidavit said that Jackson spoke to Resiles on the telephone at least 15 times between July 4-7. Detectives believe she set up a series of three-way calls in order to help Resiles plan his escape.
Frankson-Dennis is accused of driving Resiles to the Oakland Park Flea Market in the days after his escape. An arrest affidavit said telephone records show that Frankson-Dennis also communicated with Russell six times -- five incoming calls and one outgoing text message -- in the moments immediately after Resiles' escape.
Hart, who is an inmate in the county jail, is also accused of helping Resiles get out of his shackles before his escape.
Resiles, 21, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2014 death of Jill Halliburton Su, whose body was found in a bathtub in her Davie home.
