Foiled jail escape plan involved 5 people, a plane and a French castle

VERO BEACH, Fla. (WPEC) — A complex coordinated escape attempt at a Florida jail was foiled by authorities.

Five people were part of a plan to free a 78-year-old man from jail and help him escape to his castle in France, deputies said. Now they’ll join him behind bars.

He just wants to get out of our jail any way he can because he knows he’s going to die in prison as a result of these charges," Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said at a press conference Monday.

The man Flowers referred to is 78-year-old John Manchec, who faces 49 counts of possession of child pornography.

He was initially arrested in 2014, but after bonding out, he fled to France, where he is a dual citizen.

Flowers said France refused to extradite him but he was arrested once again in 2020 during a visit to the Dominican Republic and was returned to the Indian River County Jail.

The sheriff said Manchec called his team to get the plan together. The plan was, with the help of outside accomplices, to take out guards during a fake doctor’s visit, reach his plane in Fort Pierce and fly to France, where he owns a castle.

He’s telling them details, he’s telling them what he wants in his suitcase, down to the clothing, down to what kind of vodka he wants in his suitcase when he leaves,” Flowers said of Manchec's phone conversations with his accomplices.

Manchec gained his fortunes from his company ‘Aero Shade' and paid the bond of former fellow inmate Byron Harvey, who was to help two of Manchec’s employees in the outside world, in breaking him and cell-mate Kerry Shephard out.

But Manchec called the whole thing off when he thought Shephard was getting cold feet.

“Kerry Shephard had a medical incident, had to be taken out and he said, you know, ‘stop, we’re not going to do this,’ because he was too hinked up about the entire thing,” the sheriff explained.

But what Manchec didn’t know was that deputies already knew about their plan and had the evidence to put everyone involved behind bars.

This was the real deal, these folks were actually planning and plotting this escape," Flowers stated. "He thinks he’s going to have these guys attack our corrections folks and fortunately, our detectives and our team were able to intercept this and they did a fantastic job and because of it, they’re all facing additional charges.

Flowers said more people could have been involved in the plot, and while the investigation continues, authorities are working on controlling Manchec’s assets - including a yacht, plane and his castle.

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