FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Broward Sheriff's Office held a news conference Tuesday afternoon to provide details of several arrests made in reference to the Dayonte Resiles investigation.
Deputies said nine people, as well as Resiles, now face charges in connection with a Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act operation.
The suspects, who have all been arrested, were identified as Crystal Isaacs, 33; Bravon Newsome, 22; Gregory Wright, 21; Trodrick Holland, 25; Verna Isaacs, 63; Tatiana Owens, 32; Armonie Frankson-Dennis, 22; and Dyhmon Vanterpool, 19.
Resiles, who is in jail while he awaits trial on a first-degree murder charge in the 2014 death of Jill Halliburton Su in Davie, escaped from the downtown Fort Lauderdale courthouse July 15. He was captured five days later at a Days Inn in West Palm Beach.
Eight people -- twin brothers Kretron Barnes and TreVon Barnes, Winston Russell Jr., LaQuay Stern, Francine Mesadieu, Paige Jackson, Armonie Frankson-Dennis and Walter Hart -- have already been arrested in connection with the escape.
After his escape from jail, Resiles continued to receive help from his friends to make up an alibi for him and help in his case, according to court documents.
On Dec. 6, Resiles began the process of getting a deputy's help to communicate with his friends and family outside of jail, court documents said. He wrote a letter to the rookie deputy that said, "I don't know you good (sic) but my senses tell me you good people (and) I asked somebody that know you personally said you good people (sic)."
Crystal Isaacs
The deputy was given two additional letters from Resiles on Dec. 7, the document said. In the first letter, Resiles explained why he needed help getting a message to his friends and family outside of the jail, and also boasted that the deputy would be a millionaire upon his release from jail.
In the second letter, which was addressed to "Crystal," Resiles offered to pay a third party for a false testimony about his whereabouts on the day of the Davie homicide, court records said.
"He wanted her to testify to his false alibi that he was in Georgia on the day of the murder," the court document said.
The deputy notified his superiors about the letters and a proactive investigation was launched with the help of the FBI.
Law enforcement officers also attempted to verify Resiles' whereabouts during the homicide through GPS coordinates on his cellphone, Facebook account and other digital information. Investigators found that Resiles was in Davie, and not Georgia. on the day of the homicide, court records show.
The deputy whom Resiles had contacted in jail then agreed to help in the investigation during a covert operation inside the jail.
Through a series of letters to the deputy, Resiles was able to speak to his friends and family outside of the jail, court documents said. The deputy would deliver the letters to Resiles' friends and share information and provide information as a part of the investigation.
In several of those letters, Resiles pleaded to his loved ones for a contraband cellphone.
"I got trial coming up so I need to reach out to people to get sh-- done so I can win trial (sic) and come home," he wrote, according to court records.
On Christmas Eve, Resiles wrote a letter to the deputy in which he seemed frustrated that his friends and family had not given him a cellphone and asked the deputy to bring him one, court records said.
He then "boasted about how he will be rich one day, and if the deputy remains loyal, he will be financially rewarded," court records said. Resiles then recommended that the phone be purchased at Walmart and signed the letter "love & loyalty."
A cellphone was purchased for Resiles by the BSO using money from its investigation funds. The phone was wiretapped and was given to Resiles by the undercover deputy and then retrieved by the deputy at the end of his shift.
The phone was then placed in a secure location.
Resiles got his phone on Feb. 6 and, by the next day, he was calling his friends, trying to get a good alibi together for the trial.
During one call made to Vanterpool, Resiles asks her to make a false testimony about his whereabouts at the time of the homicide and to make up a story as if she knew why his blood was found at the burglary scene, records said.
Vanterpool agreed to testify as if she was someone else who allegedly knew about the crime, records said. That person was Resiles' friend, Lucienne Pierre, who was killed in December when the car in which she and three other people were riding crashed into a canal.
Resiles told Vanterpool that Pierre "was going to 'play a role' to help him in trial by providing information," and that now that she was dead he wanted her to fill that position, the court document said.
During a phone call on Feb. 21, Resiles offered to pay Vanterpool $1,000 for her false testimony, the court document said, and she agreed.
That call was followed by one to Isaac, in which Resiles asked her to delete a Facebook post, saying he was going to leave Georgia early for Florida, records said. He also asked her to make everything on his Facebook page from Sept. 2, 2014, to Sept. 9, 2014, private.
Resiles also asked Isaacs to "crop out things from Sept. 8; essentially altering the data," records said. He told her to mail him a packet of the final product, containing the Facebook posts and pictures.
Through a series of several phone calls, Resiles plotted out his alibi with his friends and at one point said that if he didn't win his criminal case, he would escape from jail again.
"If push ever come to shove, if my back ever got put against the wall again or whatever, or there's no way for me like to wiggle out or make anything happen, or whatever, I'm leaving again," he said, according to court records. "I'm leaving again, but this time, I'm leaving for good. I'm vanishing off the earth."
In another call, he discussed with Isaacs and Newsome the book "How to Get People to Do What You Want," the document said. On a later date, Resiles placed a call asking for two books, "The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph" and "Trust Me, I'm Lying."
The two books were seized by jail staff when they arrived because of safety concerns, the court document said.
On Feb. 24, Resiles spoke to Frankson-Dennis, his co-defendant in the escape case, the court document said. The pair were under a no-contact order by the judge at the time of the conversation. During their chat, Resiles and Frankson-Dennis discussed their stories and made sure they matched up, the document said.
Later that day, Resiles spoke to Frankson-Dennis again.
This time they both expressed their love for each other, the document said. During the call, Resiles explained to her how he uses women to get what he needs in jail and she realized that he "manipulates" people to get what he needs.
At the end of the conversation, Resiles asked Frankson-Dennis to give $100 to Newsome, and she reminded him that she was on house arrest and could not travel to unauthorized locations.
Arrest warrants were signed Monday for the arrests of the nine people who aided Resiles during his time in jail.
