Former prison guard gets probation for role in planned death row escape

A former state corrections officer from Charlotte was sentenced to five years of probation for his role in a plot to help a death row inmate escape. 22-year-old Justin W. Heflin was convicted of attempted bribery-solicitation by a public servant and facilitating an escape. Two other charges against Heflin were dismissed and Davidson County Judge Cheryl Blackburn recently sentenced him to five years of supervised probation. Heflin was a guard at the Tennessee Prison for Women until March when he was indicted for being part of a plot to help Tennessee’s only female death row inmate escape. He was charged with accepting gifts like a guitar and a canoe from Donald J. Kohut of New Jersey in exchange for providing a tracing of a key that would be used to help Christa Gail Pike escape. At the time of Heflin’s arrest, his father said he was forced to participate in the plot after Kohut threatened to kill him and his family and that his son was cooperating in the investigation. Kohut was convicted of bribery and facilitation of an escape in September and sentenced to eight years in prison. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the torture and murder of a 19-year-old student in Knoxville. She also was convicted in 2004 of trying to murder another inmate. Heflin was fired by the Department of Correction in March following his indictment.