Franklin man sentenced for attempted escape, witness tampering

CONCORD — A Franklin man has been sentenced to federal prison on charges of attempted escape and witness tampering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported Wednesday.

Brian Sanborn, 54, of Franklin, was sentenced to 60 months.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on May 14, 2018, Sanborn called his girlfriend from the Strafford County House of Correction, where he was detained on federal charges related to the distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine. Sanborn was scheduled to go to federal court the next day to plead guilty to the charges. During the recorded phone call, Sanborn instructed his girlfriend to call his mother and to follow the transport van to and from Strafford on May 15 because “something might fall out of that . . . van and you might need to pick something up.”

After pleading guilty to distributing methamphetamine and while enroute back to the jail, Sanborn attempted to escape by prying open the door to the cage inside the prisoner van with a 6-inch piece of metal he had smuggled into the vehicle, according to statement released by U.S. Attorney Scott Murray. Sanborn’s actions were recorded on video cameras in the van and the deputies transporting Sanborn stopped him before he could make good on his escape. Sanborn called his mother the next day and said, in the conversation which was recorded, that he “fell out of the back of the van and will probably be facing escape charges.”

After being returned to the Strafford County corrections facility, Sanborn sent a note to an inmate who was inside the transport van at the time of the botched escape, saying he knew the other inmate’s name and knew that the inmate had a girlfriend and child. In the note, Sanborn also offered to pay the inmate to keep quiet about what he saw in the van. The inmate rebuffed Sanborn overture, but later other inmates who knew Sanborn began to harass the inmate and told him, among other things, that he was a “rat” and threatened to beat him up or kill him, Murray’s statement said.

Sanborn pleaded guilty to the attempted escape and witness tampering charges on March 1.

Last September he was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for methamphetamine trafficking.