Nurse faces five years in prison for role in planning escape

Jace Radke

Monday, Feb. 7, 2005 | 9:28 a.m.

A nurse has pleaded guilty to a charge of instigating or assisting an escape of a convicted gang member.

With her plea on Friday, 28-year-old Christina Lavonda Mathews admitted to smuggling into the prison cigarettes and marijuana as well as a pair of pliers and bolt-cutters for Rolling 60s gang member Leland Devine Banks.

Mathews faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced on May 6 by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro.

Mathews admits in the plea agreement that she tried to help Banks escape from the Las Vegas Detention Center at Stewart Avenue and Mojave Road, where he was held while he awaited sentencing on racketeering charges earlier this year. The 29-year-old convicted gang member was sentenced to more than 37 years in prison.

An FBI investigation revealed that Mathews, who began working at the jail as a nurse in March, received more 1,000 recorded phone calls from Banks and helped in planning his escape attempt between March and November.

The investigation into the escape attempt is continuing, and Banks has not yet been charged with a crime in connection to the planned escape.

Banks was found guilty in October of federal racketeering crimes related to a shooting at a convenience store in January 2003. He was sentenced to 450 months in prison in January.

Banks was convicted of attempted murder and assault, two violent crimes connected to racketeering and three violations of firearms laws as a result of shooting at a rival gang member sniper-style from the roof of a building across the street from the 7-Eleven on Sierra Vista Drive and Cambridge Street.