The Nation - News from Nov. 8, 1988

A woman who evaded federal authorities for 19 years was sentenced in Uniondale, N.Y., to six months in jail for helping divert a Miami-bound flight carrying 146 people from New York to Cuba. But Linda Joyce Grinage, 39, will serve only one more month in jail because she was given credit for good behavior and for time served since her arrest last July. In addition, U.S. District Judge Jack Mishler sentenced Grinage to 4 1/2 years’ probation, to be served when she is released from jail. The weeping woman thanked the judge for his leniency. Grinage pleaded guilty on Aug. 17 to interfering with a plane crew and could have been sentenced to up to 20 years and a $10,000 fine. A second charge of air piracy, which carries a life sentence, was dropped as part of a plea bargain. At the time of the plea, she said she had been unaware that her first husband, Tyrone Austin, was going to hijack a plane until after they boarded the Eastern Airlines flight at Kennedy International Airport on Jan. 2, 1969.

Austin died in a 1971 police shoot-out after robbing a Manhattan bank.