MONTREAL -- A man who pleaded guilty to being an accomplice in a spectacular 2013 helicopter jailbreak in Quebec was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday.
Mathieu Steven Marchisio pleaded guilty to several charges in connection with the daring getaway after a helicopter pilot was forced at gunpoint to fly to a prison in Saint-Jerome in March 2013.
The charges include seizing an aircraft, possessing a firearm and breaking and entering
Two convicts, Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau and Danny Provencal, climbed a rope ladder into the hovering chopper and fled.
The two escapees and the two men accused of hijacking the helicopter were picked up by police in Mont-Tremblant, about 85 kilometres away, within a few hours of the escape.
A year after that breakout, three accused drug traffickers also broke out of jail using a helicopter.
Yves Denis, Denis Lefebvre and Serge Pomerleau escaped detention near Quebec City after a chopper landed in the prison yard.
The three were nabbed about three weeks later hiding in a luxury condominium in Montreal.
