A homeless man who tried to stow away on a Delta Air Lines flight three years ago ended up grounded

KEY WEST, May 25, 2018 – James Crabtree, 35, was found guilty May 24 following a half-day jury trial on a charge of burglary of a conveyance, a third-degree felony. The state successfully argued that Crabtree entered the aircraft at Key West International Airport with the intent to secure free passage.

He faces a sentence of up to five years in prison when he is sentenced by Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones on June 28. Prosecuting the case was Assistant State Attorney Christina Cory assisted by Assistant State Attorney Christine Poist.

Crabtree, who told police he had arrived in Key West on a Greyhound bus the night before, was arrested June 4, 2015, after a Delta employee found him in the forward storage bin of the jet around 6:15 a.m. Video surveillance shows him walking toward the plane at 11:46 p.m. June 3, a police report says.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Maureen Smith wrote in her report that Crabtree told her he had jumped a barbed-wire fence near the FedEx building and walked to the plane “because he wanted to leave the country.” He told her he broke the seals on the door and climbed inside.

Another deputy, Tamela Jensen, wrote that the Delta employee found Crabtree “curled up as if he had been sleeping. When he asked what he was doing there, [Crabtree] stated something about being a stowaway.”

He reportedly told Smith he intended to go to Cuba, though specifics of where the flight was heading that day were not available. When she asked Crabtree if he had been uncomfortable sleeping in the plane’s storage area, he reportedly said, “It was better than sleeping in a chair. I slept very good in there.”

Jensen wrote that Crabtree told her there was a CIA conspiracy against him and that “there is a group of people trying to help him get out of the country.” He also told her “he doesn’t care where he goes as long as it is out of the country.”

Contact: Public Information Officer Larry Kahn, (305) 289-2899

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]