New York Daily News

Guilty in ICE escape at JFK

- BY ANDREW KESHNER

Jurors reached the inescapabl­e verdict that a Senegalese man was guilty of fleeing sleepyeyed ICE officers trying to get him on a deportatio­n flight out of JFK Airport.

Brooklyn federal jurors took 90 minutes Friday to convict Mohamadou Mbacke, who booked it from Terminal 4 in March when his three escorts weren't looking.

Surveillan­ce video showed the unhandcuff­ed 31-year-old sprinting out and catching a cab. Three days later, ICE officers on a manhunt for the “violent deportee” found him at a Starbucks in Chicago.

Mbacke, a Senegalese diplomat's son, was being deported after his conviction on weapons charges in Michigan.

The federal escape from custody charge is a misdemeano­r, punishable up to a year in lock-up. Right at the start of the trial, defense lawyer Jan Rostal acknowledg­ed Mbacke was already bound to be deported regardless of the outcome.

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