NEW JERSEY – The associate director of the New York City federal jail was charged with killing her husband after she shot him in the face at their New Jersey home.
Antonia Ashford is the associate director at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which houses British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend facing sex trafficking charges.
Ashford, 44, was charged with murder and possession of weapons after police found her husband dead at their home in Jackson Township around 2:15 a.m. Monday, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors allege that Ashford pulled out a gun, pointed it at her husband, and then shot him in the face. Officers discovered Roderick Ashford unconscious on the floor of his home, where he was pronounced dead.
The Metropolitan Detention Center has been criticized by federal judges in New York for the conditions inmates face there, according to two people familiar with the matter. Her husband was also an employee of the Bureau of Prisons, working in New Jersey, the people said.
His arrest is the latest blow to the Bureau of Prisons, which has been beset for years by chronic violence, mismanagement and a serious staff crisis.
Several inmates, including Maxwell, have also complained about prison conditions and the overwhelming stench from overflowing toilets. In 2019, the Bureau of Prisons seriously failed in its response to a week-long blackout in the Brooklyn jail amid a winter cold snap, fueling rumors and sparking riots among shivering inmates.
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