Guilty in ICE escape at JFK
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.