Charged: 19-year-old man accused of smuggling loaded gun into Milwaukee County Jail, but how?
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- He's accused of smuggling a stolen, loaded gun into the Milwaukee County Jail, and new court documents explain how he was able to do it.
"This could have ended far worse than it did," said Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.
Destyn Montaque
Abele expressed his concerns in late February, when a gun was found in a laundry bin at the House of Correction. The weapon was taken into the Milwaukee County Jail by an inmate who then stashed the weapon in dirty laundry. Per usual procedure, that laundry was sent to the House of Correction for cleaning.
Court documents show an inmate at the HOC found a 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol wrapped in a gray Milwaukee County Jail T-shirt.
Authorities say the gun belonged to 19-year-old Destyn Montaque and they believe he arrived at the Milwaukee County Jail with the gun in a walking boot cast he was wearing on his leg.
Court documents say while in the jail, Montaque changed into his jail-issued clothing quickly and in an area not visible to a corrections officer. He was then taken to the jail infirmary, where he asked an officer to turn off the lights. In the dark, surveillance video captured Montaque taking an object off a bed -- a gray balled up T-shirt, and then tossing it in the laundry bin.
The shirt and the weapon were later found by an HOC inmate sorting clothes and turned over the HOC staff.
Court documents say Montaque bragged about getting the gun into the jail and that he'd tossed it before he could get caught. In recorded calls placed by Montaque at the jail, he says: "tell them I still got what I got." And "I dumped the (expletive)."
"This is the sort of lapse that often ends in tragedy," said Abele.
Shortly after this happened, Sheriff David Clarke issued a statement saying:
"I want to give the inmate credit for doing the right thing when he found the weapon."
Clarke called this a serious security breach. He says his office is re-evaluating its policy for searching subjects with medical devices such as casts or prosthetic limbs.
Montaque is facing a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon, repeater and carrying a concealed weapon, repeater.
He'll be in court for his preliminary hearing on April 1st.