NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Downtown Detention Center (DDC) continues to find more hidden items left by Alex Friedmann, according to the Davidson County Sheriff's Department.
In a now non-secure area of the DDC, deputies found plastic bags filled with a makeshift uniform, $100, and a handcuff key attached to the insole of shoes inside ductwork.
In 2022, Alex Friedmann was sentenced to 40 years for felony vandalism after deputies found loaded guns and other lethal weapons during the construction of the detention center.
Friedmann allegedly dressed as a construction worker and was seen entering the control room. Police said he then entered the room and placed a key ring in his pocket, left the DDC through the front lobby, returned two hours later, and replaced the keys, again with two missing. When officers arrested Friedmann, they found an igloo cooler he was carrying into the facility contained bolt cutters and a document identified as schematics of the detention center.
Sheriff Daron Hall said finding the items in the ductwork was the missing piece of the puzzle.
“We knew and we believed of his plan to involve many things, including loss of life, and a mass escape,” Hall said.
In court, Friedmann claimed he hid items for protection from gang rape if he was ever incarcerated. Hall said, “You wouldn’t need a uniform on the outside of a secure area to help you inside if you ever went to jail, and so just kind of happy to put some closure to the story for us.”
The investigation has been costly too. They were delayed moving into the jail, and federal agents searched for hidden guns for a month in 2020. "It was $300,000 to take the locks out because he had taken the keys out of the building and manipulated a lot of the space," Hall said.
For now, the sheriff will sleep better at night knowing they likely foiled an escape plot. "This was what we believe was part of a plan that would result in significant loss of life," Hall said.
