Halifax escape artist pleads guilty to robberies

A Halifax man serving a sixteen-year sentence for robberies in Toronto pleaded guilty Tuesday to three high-profile crimes in Nova Scotia where store employees were tied up and robbed at gunpoint.

Jermaine Carvery pleaded guilty to confining more than 40 employees at Costco in Halifax, as well as several people at TRA Atlantic Cash & Carry in Truro and Chrissy's Trading Post in Hammonds Plains eight years ago.

He will be sentenced in February for these crimes and the attempted murder of an employee during another robbery in the Burnside IndustrialParksix years ago.

The Crown said it would seek a life sentence for the 33-year-old well-known escape artist.

Carvery is perhaps best known for escaping custody in April 2008.

Correctional workers were escorting him from the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Centre in Burnside to a medical appointment at the Victoria General Hospital.

Carvery somehow managed to slip out of his leg shackles while being transported and ran away from correctional workers when their vehicle got to the hospital.

He was on the lam for months before being recaptured in Niagara Falls, Ont.

He is currently serving time in Renous, N.B.