Woman pleads guilty to helping prisoner escape

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A prison volunteer who helped a convicted murderer escape while hidden in a dog crate pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal weapons charges. Toby Young, who ran the Safe Harbor Prison Dog Program, pleaded guilty to providing a firearm to a felon. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for June 18. Young, 48, of Kansas City, Kan., was sentenced last July to 21 months in prison after reaching a plea agreement. She admitted smuggling John Manard, 28, out of Lansing Correctional Facility in February 2006 by hiding him in a crate in the van she used to carry dogs in and out of the prison.She also admitted smuggling a cell phone to him. The two were arrested 12 days later in Tennessee. Manard, who was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in the 1996 shooting death of Donald England at an Overland Park strip mall, was sentenced in February to 10 years and 10 months in prison for aggravated escape from prison.