cole phelps
Superstar
Two current and one former prison employee who all belonged to the Ku Klux Klan planned to kill a black inmate as he was released in retaliation for a fight. One of those KKK members made his first appearance in front of a judge Saturday
The three men -- Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, David Elliot Moran, 47, and 42-year-old Charles Thomas Newcomb -- each were arrested Thursday on one state count of conspiracy to commit murder, according to a statement from Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's office.
Charles Newcomb was transferred from the Alachua County Jail to the Columbia County Jail.
Driver and Moran are current correctional officers of the Department of Corrections at the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler. Newcomb was a corrections officer trainee who was dismissed in January 2013 for failure to meet minimum requirements.
Driver and Moran had their first appearance with a judge Friday.
The inmate is a Putnam County man.
Investigators said that late last year Driver handed a picture of the inmate, who was at that time out on supervised released, to an FBI informant who had infiltrated the Traditional American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Driver told the informant he had a fight with the inmate and both he and Moran wanted the former inmate "6 feet under."
Over the next few months, the FBI said its informant met with all three men, discussing plans to kill the man. One alleged plan involved shooting him during a ride to Palatka; another plan was to inject him with insulin and make it look like he died in a fishing accident.
