Oakdale prisoner pleads guilty to attempting to escape correctional center

LAKE CHARLES, La. – United States Attorney David C. Joseph announced that a federal prisoner in Oakdale pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempting to escape by climbing over a razor wire perimeter fence.

Lucas Gregory Woodard, 41, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Center in Oakdale, Louisiana, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Kay to one count of attempted escape. The plea will become final when accepted by U.S. District Judge Robert G. James. According to the guilty plea’s factual basis, U.S. Bureau of Prison staff at the Federal Correctional Center in Oakdale discovered two inmates, Woodard and codefendant Nicholas Bickle, 40, ensnared in razor wire on the perimeter fence and ground that encompassed the correction center on October 11, 2017. Staff had to pry open and cut the coils of razor wire in several places in order to remove Woodard and Bickle.

The defendants face up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Bickle pleaded guilty on June 6, 2018 to one count of attempted escape. The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced October 1, 2018

The FBI and U.S. Bureau of Prisons conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph T. Mickel is prosecuting the case.