On Friday, Cuban officials announced that Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper, has died in Havana decades after breaking out of prison and escaping to the communist island.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Chesimard, born JoAnne Deborah Byron and also known as Assata Olugbala Shakur, passed away after living in Cuba for years under asylum granted by the Cuban government.
“On September 25, 2025, American citizen Joanne Deborah Byron, ‘Assata Shakur,’ passed away in Havana, Cuba, due to health conditions and advanced age,” the ministry’s statement said.
In 1977, Chesimard was convicted of the murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster, who left behind a wife and 3-year-old son, during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973.
In 1977, she was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other crimes and was sentenced to life in prison. She escaped from prison in 1979 and lived underground before surfacing in Cuba in 1984.
The FBI and the New Jersey attorney general each offered a $1 million reward for her capture.
