THE last prisoner to share a jail cell with twisted Jeffrey Epstein has died after catching coronavirus behind bars.
Efrain ‘Stone’ Reyes was found dead inside his mother’s apartment in the Bronx, cops in New York have confirmed.
The 51 year old was diagnosed with Covid earlier this year while serving a sentence for drug trafficking at Queens Detention Facility.
He had been transferred to that jail from Manhattan Correction Center (MCC) in August 2019 – the day before Epstein hanged himself there.
His niece told the New York Daily News that prior to his death he spoke about his time behind bars with the notorious sex offender.
Angelique Lopez, 27, said he had called Epstein a “good cellmate” who spent a lot of his time reading in his bed.
“He wasn’t a problem starter or too loud,” she said claiming Epstein had been placed in her uncle’s cell because Reyes had a broken leg and was “laid back.”
Lopez also told how her uncle broke down in tears as he told his family he had Covid and revealed he was terrified he would die of the virus behind bars.
She said when her uncle – who had diabetes and heart problems – was freed in April it was clear the virus had affected his lungs.
She also claimed Epstein once told her relative – who died on November 27 – that he wanted to kill himself.
She said: “Epstein was very depressed and he mentioned to my uncle that he didn’t want to live anymore and my uncle was telling him, ‘Don’t do any of this while I’m in the room.
“My uncle just wanted to do his time and get out.”
She went on to claim the prison guards treated Epstein “like crap” and made him sleep on the floor.
According to the Daily News, it was common knowledge in the jail that Epstein was suicidal.
Yet, guards left the sex trafficker alone in his cell when Reyes was transferred to the other facility, the report says.
Epstein – one of America’s most high profile inmates who had attempted suicide the previous month – was found hanged in his cell the next day on August 10, 2019.
The new outlet spoke with two current prisoners and one former inmate – all of whom were outraged by the conditions in the prison.
Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019 after flying into New York from Paris – where he owned a luxury apartment near near the Arc de Triomphe.
The wealthy banker, who faced 50 years in prison on charges of sex trafficking minors, was then introduced to his new home – a filthy prison crawling with rats and cockroaches.
Epstein, who was worth around $560m when he died, was shaken down for cash by other ruthless criminals, the report says.
He paid prisoners $4,000 for illicit items such as cell phones – some of which he never received.
One former prisoner said: “A normal inmate will come in there and they automatically assume you have money because you’ve just been arrested.
“They’re trying to sell you everything — phones, electronics, a better cell.
“When he got in there everyone was fighting over who would get him – he was getting ripped off left and right.”
Death threats were slid under Epstein’s doors while others offered to provide security to him for a price, the ex-inmate claims.
The insider said the pedophile – who was friends with Prince Andrew, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton – wired thousands of dollars into prisoner’s Western Union accounts in a desperate bid to stay safe in jail.
It is even claimed that Epstein got so desperate that he began telling other prisoners that he would include them in his will.
Ms Lopez said her uncle told her he was sceptical that Epstein was able to kill himself in the cramped cell.
She said: “My uncle kept saying the bunk beds weren’t tall enough to do something like that. It didn’t make sense.
“The beds weren’t that tall. It just didn’t seem right to my uncle.
“But he said he didn’t know. He couldn’t be sure. Sometimes people are fighting something we know nothing about.”
Her uncle helped the FBI agents tasked with investigating Epstein’s suicide but died last month after being released from jail.
