New Tangipahoa sheriff reveals Cyprian escape happened 10 days earlier than public was told
HAMMOND, La. (WVUE) - Tangipahoa Parish has a new sheriff, who’s already dealing with a new failure at the jail he’s inheriting.
Recently sworn-in Sheriff Gerald Sticker confirmed Tuesday (July 2) to Fox 8 that still-missing inmate Jamarcus Cyprian escaped the parish jail on May 16 -- 10 days before the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office (TPSO) reported it to the public.
The first notification of Cyprian’s escape came on May 26, said to be part of a four-inmate escape.
Cyprian was serving time for armed robbery and weapons charges.
Cyprian’s escape happened under former Sheriff Daniel Edwards’ tenure. Sticker said he’s not sure why the escape wasn’t reported to the public sooner.
“My observation, from the outside looking in, it’s just a systemic breakdown,” Sticker said. “There’s a lack of supervision, there’s a lack of processes that are being followed in the jail, staffing issues, it’s just a comedy of errors.”
Sticker said he does not know if Edwards or which deputies knew about the May 16 escape date, but said he is conducting an internal review of that incident and an unreported February 2024 escape.
”Ultimately, that information needs to go up to the very top,” Sticker said. “I don’t know if there was a communications breakdown, at which level it stopped, if it rose all the way to the top. I can only speculate, I don’t know. But, ultimately, if it rose to the top, then obviously that’s something that should have been made aware to the public, to parish government.”
He said he has not discussed Cyprian’s May 16 escape with Edwards. Edwards has not agreed to an interview with Fox 8 despite multiple requests.
Edwards transferred now-former warden Heath Martin to a different role in the sheriff’s office. Sticker confirmed that Martin remains at TPSO, and said he was planning to transfer him as well.
“The decision that I was intending to make to remove Heath Martin from that spot had nothing to do with his job performance in general as a law enforcement officer,” Sticker said. “My observation, from the outside looking in, Heath Martin had a skill set within law enforcement, but it wasn’t corrections. Although he had some supervisory experience, he had some tactical experience, he had no correctional-specific experience.”
Sticker said he has talked with Martin, and that Martin attempted to defend himself.
Sticker has named a new warden, Jerry Martin (no relation to Heath Martin). Sticker said Jerry Martin has begun to turn the jail around after a turbulent past.
The facility has a history of escapes, recently needed fence repairs, and state records show the Department of Corrections warning the jail about staff training in 2023.
The department is investigating what happened with the May escapes and temporarily removed inmates, though the department claims the two are unrelated.
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