A Yell County woman who helped two men under federal indictment escape from the Jefferson County jail in 2019 was arraigned Monday on allegations she violated the terms of her supervised release conditions.
Kennan Gililland, 29, of Ola was sentenced in July 2021 to time served and placed on two years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr., who ordered her to work with the federal probation office to seek inpatient drug treatment for her role in the escape.
She pleaded guilty the previous July to two counts of aiding and abetting escape, admitting that on the night of July 29, 2019, she picked up her boyfriend, Wesley Gullett, and another man -- Christopher Sanderson, who was jailed on unrelated charges -- outside the jail and drove them about 130 miles, dropping them off north of Dover in Pope County. She admitted she also provided Gullett with some food and other supplies.
Gililland, who is in federal custody, was escorted by federal marshals into the courtroom to join her attorney, Blake Hendrix, at the defense table for the arraignment proceedings.
Filed under seal, Gililland's alleged violations were not read in open court and she waived a preliminary hearing. U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Thomas Ray advised her that a hearing on the government's revocation petition will be held Aug. 25 before Judge Moody.
Gullett, 31, of Russellville was sentenced in May 2021 to 35 years in prison for his part as the head of the violent white supremacist gang New Aryan Empire, responsible for drug trafficking and racketeering in and around Pope County up until federal authorities secured indictments on 55 people in a wide-ranging investigation into drug trafficking, kidnapping and attempted murder in late 2017. In June 2021, Gullett was sentenced to an additional 18 months in prison for his part in the escape.
Gililland was not indicted as part of that investigation and is not believed to be associated with the New Aryan Empire beyond her association with Gullett, who has since renounced his ties to the gang. In June, Moody added 18 months to Gullett's 35-year sentence for the escape.
In December 2020, Sanderson was sentenced to 33 months for the escape, to run consecutively to a 188-month sentence he received in an unrelated drugs and firearms case that he was being held on at the time of the escape.
Because Gililland is under a hold from the state of Arkansas, Ray said she will remain in jail until the state matter is resolved, at which time he said she may request a bond hearing in the current matter.
"If she can get those resolved and we can work with probation to find some kind of meaningful inpatient treatment, we might be able to work something out," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bart Dickinson said. "Until she gets that state hold resolved that's going to be the issue."
"If she can get that taken care of where she doesn't have any holds, I will schedule a hearing," Ray said. "If the government is amenable to the conditions at that point, and I'm assuming those conditions involved inpatient treatment?"
"Yes, Your Honor," Dickinson confirmed.
"Then we can come back and take care of it at that time," Ray said.