Houma man busts into Angola

A few people have been known to try breaking out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. But a Houma man may be the only person known to try breaking in.

Police and state officials say Floyd Lee Tillman forced his way past the prison’s main gate Sunday with an infant and toddler in the vehicle he was driving, after being refused admission. Authorities confirm that a prison guard fired shots at the vehicle, which was allegedly driven up onto a levee where it collided with a responding investigator’s car.

Neither Tillman, the children or prison officers were injured, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Pam Laborde, although the investigator did suffer some minor cuts and scrapes. Laborde confirmed that Tillman spent a short stint of time at Angola, as one of the Terrebonne Parish jail inmates kept there following Hurricane Gustav, which caused the parish facility to shut down. Tillman’s Terrebonne Parish arrests include charges of failure to appear, simple battery and petty theft. Tillman was on probation, Laborde said, and corrections officials were checking with officers in Thibodaux to see if he had any outstanding issues.

An investigation by the Department of Corrections and the West Feliciana Sheriff’s Office continues. So far, said Sheriff J. Austin Daniel, no determination has been made as to why Tillman sought to enter the prison. Daniel said Tillman was not armed.

“My understanding is he has no ties to Angola,” Daniel said. “He told them he was on his way to Florida and wanted to tour the prison, and they told him they couldn’t allow that. He went back a third time and he was agitated and ran through the gate and that is when security pursued him to the back of the prison, at the ferry landing. He had turned his vehicle around and hit head on with one of the investigators. Obviously he has some mental problems.”

Daniel confirmed that Tillman’s vehicle was fired upon.

“That is protocol,” Daniel said. “Anytime a car breaches security and enters the prison they are supposed to fire. Luckily the kids were not hurt.”

Tillman, according to Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis, picked up the children at their mothers’ home Saturday. The children, one 8 months old and the other 2 years old, are both his. City police were seeking him but only because of a welfare concern, said Duplantis, who affirmed that Tillman was legally entitled to have them.

Daniel said Tillman now faces four counts of criminal damage to property over $500 and two counts of cruelty to a juvenile, all felonies. He is also charged with criminal trespass and remaining in a place after being forbidden. Bond was set at $75,000 and Tillman was given over to the parish coroner for a mental health evaluation.

The mother of the children picked them up Sunday, Daniel said.

“The kids are OK,” Daniel said. “They were hungry and crying. I don’t think he had fed them all day. They were pretty upset, they had went through a lot.”

Attempts have been made by inmates to escape the facility in modern times, though freedom didn’t last long. Two inmates, Laborde said, had hidden themselves in a cotton wagon hooked to a truck and were later found. A few years ago, she said, an inmate managed to leave the grounds but was picked up in a wildlife preserve that borders the prison.

The gate, she said, was slightly damaged, and it appeared that Tillman had tried driving around it but caught a piece of it with the left side of his auto.

“I’ve heard of some trying to bust out but not in,” Daniel said. “That’s a first for me.”