US man who fled jail and pleaded to Trump and Kim Kardashian gets 60-year term | US crime
A man who joined nine other escapees from a New Orleans prison and openly sought help from Donald Trump, with rapper and reality TV star Kim Kardashian on the run, whom the president later pardoned, was recently sentenced to 60 years in prison for kidnapping and raping his ex-girlfriend.
Antoine Massey, 32, was sentenced Thursday at a courthouse in suburban New Orleans, months after he was captured in connection with his escape from prison and convicted on earlier charges.
The escape from the New Orleans prison on May 16, 2025, in which Massey was involved, is one of the largest escapes in recent US history. Authorities said the men pulled open a malfunctioning cell door at the prison, squeezed through a hole behind the toilet, climbed a barbed wire fence and escaped into the darkness; Meanwhile, they taunted authorities with scribbled messages, including one that read “Easy.”
Eight of the fleeing men were re-taken into custody when Massey made videos that he posted on social media, pleading with Trump and Kardashian, among others, to come to his aid.
“Please, I want help,” Massey said in one of the videos that went viral. “When I return to custody, I ask all of you to please come and help.”
Others named by Massey in his request were rappers Lil Wayne and NBA YoungBoy, from New Orleans and nearby Baton Rouge, Louisiana, respectively.
NBA YoungBoy, whose legal name is Kentrell Gaulden and who was sentenced to two years in prison on federal weapons-related charges, is among several celebrities pardoned by Trump during his second presidency. But Trump’s pardon powers do not extend to the state charges Massey was grappling with at the time.
Police eventually caught Massey in late June at a house in New Orleans about 2 miles (3 km) from where the escape took place.
The last of the escaped men was captured in Atlanta in October. In November, Massey appeared before a grand jury in Covington, Louisiana, north of New Orleans, on charges of second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping, domestic violence involving strangulation and violating a protective order.
The charges dated back to November 2024, when Massey was found to have beaten and sexually assaulted his girlfriend in Slidell, which is relatively close to Covington. Prosecutors said his victim managed to escape and find a stranger in New Orleans to help contact police, which led to the victim being detained at the facility where the escape later took place.
Jurors returned a guilty verdict against him. The sentence handed down to him Thursday does not give him any possibility of parole.
“This was… brutal and extreme violence,” said Judge Alan Black. in question To Massey.
Massey has pleaded not guilty to any charges related to the prison break in New Orleans. In his viral videos, he claimed that he had been “released” from lockdown.
He also faces other charges in unrelated cases.
