NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A felony justice advocate who admitted to hiding weapons and different weapons within the partitions of a Tennessee jail whereas it was beneath building in 2019 will serve 40 years in jail, a decide dominated.
Alex Friedmann, 53, appeared in a Nashville courtroom Thursday morning for sentencing about three months after he was discovered responsible of vandalism, a Class A felony.
Friedmann, of Nashville, was arrested in early 2020 after he was caught on video surveillance impersonating a building contractor, stealing two keys and hiding three firearms and quite a few noticed and razor blades in Music Metropolis’s Downtown Detention Heart.
Davidson County Sheriff’s officers spent 1000’s of hours reviewing video footage monitoring Friedmann’s whereabouts all through the power resulting in the invention of over a dozen “instrument packs” and the firearms hidden inside the partitions. Extra time pay for that work, and the associated fee to rekey the power’s 1,800 locks, tipped the $250,000 threshold for a felony vandalism cost, prosecutors argued throughout Friedmann’s trial in July.
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Friedmann’s attorneys, admitting their consumer did the crime, argued the state was overcharging him. The jury did not really feel the identical approach, returning a responsible verdict in about an hour. Friedmann has prior felony convictions elevating the minimal punishment to 25 years in jail.
Previous to the trial, prosecutors supplied Friedmann a plea settlement with 30 years in jail, his lawyer Ben Raybin wrote in a current sentencing memorandum. He requested the decide give his consumer comparable consideration.
Accompanying that submitting was a seven-page letter from Friedmann to Choose Steve Dozier by which he particulars two incidents of rape whereas held within the outdated county jail when he was 18 years outdated. Friedmann wrote in 2018 he visited the outdated jail, and the cell the place he mentioned the rapes occurred, previous to it being torn down in an effort to realize closure. As a substitute, he wrote, the go to had the other affect.
Friedmann wrote that he acted out of an irrational concern he’d be jailed once more and topic to a different rape. He hid the weapons within the partitions of the under-construction facility as a failsafe, he wrote.
Sheriff Daron Corridor flatly rejected that clarification, calling Friedmann’s story a “fascinating phantasm.”
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“The issue along with his story is that the Felony Justice Heart had been torn down by that cut-off date. It was utterly on the bottom in 2016,” Corridor mentioned through the sentencing listening to. “So it wasn’t potential for him to tour it in 2018.”
Throughout a quick assertion in courtroom Thursday, Friedmann mentioned he erred within the writing of his letter, and he did certainly go to the jail in 2016 earlier than it was torn down.
Corridor was indignant on the witness stand Thursday, adamant Friedmann’s plot was to incite violence contained in the jail.
“That is simply one other trick of a narcissist,” Corridor mentioned. “Alex Friedmann isn’t any sufferer and never one particular person ought to consider this authorized Hail Mary…There’s not an individual ever who deserves the utmost greater than Alexander Friendmann. I urge this courtroom, on behalf of the boys and lady who work for me.”
Friedmann apologized for his actions whereas in courtroom Thursday.
“I deeply remorse I failed, and betrayed, the belief of the individuals who believed in me,” he mentioned. “I apologize to the advocated and the jail reform group and for any set backs my actions have brought about.”
Shortly after the trial, Friedmann pleaded responsible to a federal crime of gun possession. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in that case in January.