Two inmates at the St. Johns County Detention Center have learned the hard way that a master escape plan is only as good as your choice in roommates. Joseph Silcott, 20, and Joseph Izzi, 38, are facing a mountain of new felony charges after their elaborate jailbreak plot—which featured structural demolition, a planned drone delivery, and a lot of hygiene products—completely fell apart.
The ultimate downfall of their operation wasn’t a high-tech security sweep, but standard roommate drama that ended with one inmate snitching on the other over stolen snacks.
The plot began unraveling on May 16, 2026, when Izzi decided he had finally had enough of his cellmate and flagged down jail staff to complain that Silcott was threatening him with a weapon. When corrections officers separated the pair and searched the cell, they didn’t just find two sharpened metal blades; they found a DIY home renovation project gone horribly wrong.
The cell’s heavy-duty, wall-mounted metal sink and toilet unit was hanging loose, and the glass pane of the window was entirely missing.
An investigation revealed that the duo had spent days attempting to rip the heavy plumbing fixtures completely off the wall to expose a hole big enough to use as an exit route. To keep guards from noticing that their toilet was slowly detaching from the drywall, the inmates concocted a crude structural caulk out of toilet paper, soap, and toothpaste, meticulously smearing it over the cracks to hide their daily progress.
The window wasn’t a victim of random vandalism, either. The cellmates had shattered the glass and systematically flushed the shards down the toilet, piece by piece. They left the outer plastic privacy shield intact but broken on one end, creating a perfect drive-thru window for an airborne delivery.
Jail phone logs later captured Silcott ordering a custom drone drop from an outside accomplice, specifically requesting a small “finger phone,” narcotics, and a saw blade to finish cutting through the wall.
But before the drone could make its delivery, the criminal partnership hit a major snag. Silcott reportedly discovered the nature of Izzi’s existing charges, which include human trafficking and child sex crimes. Disgusted by his new bunkmate, Silcott pulled a homemade shank on Izzi, ordered him to stay confined to his bunk, and began aggressively tax-collecting his canteen snacks.
Terrified of his armed roommate, Izzi chose to blow the whistle on the weapons cache, inadvertently exposing the entire escape operation to jail staff.
Jail security footage later confirmed the absurd saga, capturing both men actively tearing at the plumbing, smashing the window, and playing cleanup crew with the glass. Izzi eventually gave a full post-Miranda confession, detailing the entire scheme down to the drone logistics.
Silcott is now stacked with a hefty new list of charges, including attempted escape, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal mischief. Izzi faces his own matching set of escape and conspiracy charges. Both men continue to be held without bond.
“An escape attempt is something our agency takes very seriously. We will not tolerate inmates attempting to plan an escape or those helping them. The investigation is ongoing, and more charges are forthcoming. Everyone will be held accountable for their actions in St. Johns County,” St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick said.
Detectives are currently pursuing an active investigation into the outside accomplices who were supposed to play drone pilot for the failed getaway.
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