A 21-year-old woman helped set up the Philly jailbreak and has been charged, police say

A 21-year-old woman has been charged with helping coordinate the escape of two prisoners from a Philadelphia jail this week by putting them in touch with a potential get-away driver, authorities said.

Xianni Stallings, of North Philadelphia, was called twice on a recorded jail line by Ameen Hurst, one of the two escapees, about 5:15 p.m. Sunday — just hours before Hurst and his accused co-conspirator broke out of the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center through a hole in a chain-link fence, according to an affidavit of probable cause for Stallings’ arrest.

During the calls, the affidavit says, Stallings connected Hurst with a man who discussed picking him up “at the bridge behind” the jail.

Stallings was arraigned early Thursday morning on charges including conspiracy and hindering apprehension, court records show. Bail was set at $500,000. Jane Roh, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors had asked for bail to be set at $2 million and were “in the process of appealing” the decision.

Stallings was being represented by the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which declined to comment.

Court records show Stallings was released from jail earlier this year after charges connected to a stabbing she was accused of participating in fell apart due to a lack of evidence. An accused coconspirator, 43-year-old Taren Stallings is free on $750,000 bail while awaiting trial on charges including attempted murder, the records say.

Stallings’ new arrest added a twist to a situation that has outraged city officials and led to a search for Nasir Grant, 24, who is charged with gun and drug offenses, and Hurst, 18, who is accused of committing four homicides. U.S. Marshals are continuing to look for them.

Grant was taken into custody Thursday night after a car stop on the 2800 block of West Dauphin Street, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark.

» READ MORE: One of the two men who escaped from a Philly jail was arrested Thursday night, authorities say

Their disappearance from the jail went unnoticed by staff for nearly 19 hours, despite the fact that, according to Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney, three body counts were performed during that time.

A number of questions remained unanswered Thursday, including how and when the triangle-shaped hole was cut in the fence, and by whom. Officials have otherwise remained tight-lipped on investigations into how the breakout happened and why it went undetected for so long.

Several sources briefed on the probes, who requested anonymity to discuss it, have said investigators are exploring the possibility that Hurst and Grant may have been aided in some capacity by prison staff. It remains unclear whether authorities believe the escape was actively assisted by any employees or simply enabled by ongoing staffing shortages that have plagued the jails for years.

Carney said in a statement: “We are leaving no stone unturned in order to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

The escape followed more than two years of warnings by prisoners, advocates and union officials of a growing crisis at the city’s jails, where nearly 4,400 people are held. Last week, the union representing officers announced a vote of no confidence in Carney’s leadership, saying the prisons are about 800 officers short, posing a public safety crisis.

Carney, meanwhile, had raised concerns with other city officials for months about the flow of drugs, phones, tools, and other contraband into the jails. And two sources familiar with the ongoing investigations into the breakout said Carney has told others in the days since that she believes it could have been a so-called inside job.

David Robinson, president of Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, which represents corrections officers, called the notion of guards helping prisoners break free “absurd.”

“That somebody would help an inmate escape, especially with those charges?” he said. “I couldn’t believe that. I refuse to believe that.”

Long before Hurst escaped on Sunday, investigators had taken a keen interest in his recorded phone conversations with people outside the jail.

Shortly after he was incarcerated in 2021, a law enforcement source said, Hurst proved surprisingly loose-lipped on calls to relatives in which he discussed goings-on in the jail, and even the particulars about other crimes.

In court documents, prosecutors said that when Hurst was facing charges for one murder, he essentially confessed on a recorded line to another: The fatal shooting in 2021 of 20-year-old Rodney Hargrove on State Road, near the front gates of the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.

“You heard about that State Road s—?” Hurst asked on a call in March 2021, according to court documents. “I thought that was Sid, we got the wrong [person] though.”

Hurst was later charged with killing Hargrove, and his phone conversations were cited in the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest in that case.

On Monday afternoon, after Hurst had escaped — but before prison officials realized he and Grant were missing — Stallings spoke with another prisoner, also on a recorded line, and almost immediately brought up the breakout, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed in her case.

“You didn’t hear about no inmates leaving?” Stallings asked, the affidavit said. Stallings was “shocked” that the prisoner knew nothing about it, the document said. “They just climbed the fence and run,” she said.

Earlier this year, Stallings spent several months in jail after she was charged with counts including attempted murder over a stabbing on the 2600 block of Susquehanna Avenue in November 2022, court records say.

A criminal complaint said she and Taren Stallings stabbed a man several times in his head, neck, and body, screaming: “Let’s kill him! Let’s kill him!” The complaint does not identify the victim, or say how Xianni and Taren Stallings might be related.

The complaint also does not specify which role either person may have played in the crime. Court records show that on Feb. 14, Municipal Court Judge Karen Y. Simmons ruled that Taren Stallings should be held for trial on charges including attempted murder and aggravated assault, but that all charges against Xianni Stallings should be dismissed for lack of evidence.

A Twitter account that appears to be Stallings’ contains numerous posts lamenting her boyfriend’s incarceration, though it did not mention a name. “My man really [gonna] be home the end of this month,” a post on Sunday morning said.

The next afternoon — hours before the escape was known to the public or even to prison officials — came an update: “This boy really scatted.”

It was not clear how, or whether, Hurst and Grant may have known they’d be able to escape undetected Sunday night.

Robinson, the union executive, has said staff shortages should be scrutinized. The unit from which Grant and Hurst broke free, known as “H” Unit — which was designated as one of the most secure units in the entire jail complex — was unstaffed for four hours around the time of the escape Sunday night, he said. And he said two other critical posts outside had been unstaffed for nearly a year.

Carney, the prisons commissioner, has denied that any section of the prison was completely unstaffed, though she acknowledged that the whereabouts of staff on Sunday and Monday are part of the ongoing investigations.

If the escape was in some way assisted by one or more staff members, it would add to a troubling list of accusations that employees have at times contributed to wrongdoing at the jails, where prisoners and staffers alike have long been experiencing harsh conditions.

Last fall, the District Attorney’s Office charged a correctional officer with taking more than $23,000 in bribes in return for helping an incarcerated man run a criminal enterprise out of the jails — including by letting the prisoner sell drugs within the facility, prosecutors said.

A year before that, a corrections officer was federally charged with sneaking $70,000 worth of cell phones and drugs into the institutions.

An expert testifying in a federal lawsuit last year concluded the jails were awash in contraband, contributing to an “unsafe and violent environment.”

Amid multiple grand jury probes, the city in 2021 contracted to bring state-of-the-art body scanners, capable of detecting an array of contraband, into the jails. But they have never been used, Robinson said: Staff go through a metal detector and a pat down instead.

Robinson acknowledged that was due to pushback by union leaders, who had cited concerns over radiation and possible invasion of privacy.

John Mitchell, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Prisons, said the scanners are used when processing prisoners, but are not in use for staff.

After the escape, the city called in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for a security assessment in response to the breakout, Carney said. And each jail facility is expected to remain on lockdown through Friday for “a thorough review of the perimeter and security points,” the city said.

Before Grant was caught, Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said his department remained focused on quickly locating the escapees.

Authorities ask that anyone with information call 911, the U.S. Marshals Service at 800-336-0102, or Philadelphia Police at 215-686-TIPS (8477). Officials were offering a reward of as much as $25,000 for the capture of each man.

“Right now,” Vanore said, “we’re doing everything we can to find those two.”