NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Days after 10 men escaped from a New Orleans jail by slipping through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a wall, six of them remained on the run Monday, and up to $20,000 in rewards was being offered for information leading to the capture of each escapee.
The FBI on Sunday increased its reward amount from $5,000 to $10,000 per escapee, while the CrimeStoppers reward was increased from $2,000 to $5,000, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was offering $5,000. The latest arrest came late Monday when a fourth fugitive, Gary Price, was taken into custody.
FBI Special Agent Jonathan Trapp said during a news conference that he believes members of the public may be helping them and, if that's the case, would be arrested on charges of aiding or abetting them.
The men range in age from 19 to 42 and face a variety of charges including aggravated assault, domestic abuse battery and murder. While three of the men were quickly caught and a fourth later, a multiagency task force has been assembled to scour the region for the remaining fugitives.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said the men were able to get out of the Orleans Justice Center because of “defective locks,” and possibly with help from people inside her department.
“It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help,” she said Friday of the jail where 1,400 people are being held.
Just days before the escape, Hutson’s office had asked for money to fix faulty locks and cell doors. During the city’s Capital Improvement Plan hearing on May 12, Jeworski “Jay” Mallet, Chief of Corrections for the Orleans Justice Center, said the current system at the jail was built for a “minimum custody type of inmate.”
Mallet went on to say that some of the cell unit doors and locks have been “manipulated” to the point that not only are they not secure, but some can’t even be closed properly. But he classified many at the jail as “high security” inmates who are awaiting trials for violent offenses, including charges such as murder, assault and rape.
Surveillance footage, shared with media during a news conference, showed the escapees sprinting out of the facility — some wearing orange clothing and others in white. They scaled a fence, using blankets to protect themselves from barbed wire, and some sprinted across an interstate and into a neighborhood.
A law enforcement photograph obtained by The Associated Press shows the opening through which the men escaped. Above the hole are scrawled messages that include “To Easy LoL” with an arrow pointing at the gap.
Friday's escape is drawing intense scrutiny and criticism. It took hours for sheriff's officials to realize the men had escaped and then more time still to alert New Orleans police, even though some of the missing men are accused of violent offenses and they escaped into a neighborhood less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from the city's famous French Quarter.
“Someone clearly dropped the ball and there's no excuse for this,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said on X.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams, who said he prosecuted one of the people who escaped, told New Orleans news station WWL-TV he was “angry.”
“This is absurd,” he said. “I don't understand how it is feasible that it could have occurred.”
The escapees yanked open a door to enter the cell with the hole around 12:30 a.m. By 1:30 a.m., they were outside the jail, according to the sheriff's office.
But it was not until a routine morning headcount more than seven hours later that law enforcement learned they were missing.
Officials from the sheriff’s office say no deputy was at the pod where the fugitives had been held. There was a civilian employee there, but she had stepped away to get food, they said.
There appeared to be a further delay before New Orleans police were notified.
“You’ve given a head start to some very dangerous people,” Williams told WWL-TV Friday.
Soon after the escape, one of the men, Kendall Myles, 20, was apprehended in the French Quarter after a brief foot chase.
Three sheriff's employees have been placed on suspension pending the outcome of an investigation. It was not immediately clear whether any of the employees were suspected of helping with the escape. Officials also didn’t say if the employee who left to get food was among the three suspended.
Most of the men are in their 20s. Myles and the other two men who were earlier captured, Robert Moody, 21, and Dkenan Dennis, 24, were taken by helicopter to a state correctional facility outside the New Orleans area, Louisiana State Police said Saturday.
The agency said one of the men became hostile during the transfer, requiring troopers to use a “spit hood.” They did not identify the man.
Dennis had been charged with armed robbery with a firearm and illegal carrying of a weapon during a crime of violence, according to Murrill, the attorney general. Moody was facing a weapons charge as well as charges of attempted second-degree battery and obstruction.
Murrill said both men will face additional charges stemming from the escape.
One of the fugitives, Derrick Groves, was convicted on two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder last year for his role in the 2018 Mardi Gras Day shootings of two men. Another escapee, Corey Boyd, had pleaded not guilty to a pending second-degree murder charge.
The justice center opened in 2015, making it a relatively new facility, but it has still experienced violence and security problems.
Hutson said the facility is around 60% staffed, so the staff is “stretched thin."
Bianka Brown, chief financial officer of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, said the jail can’t afford a maintenance and service contract to fix problems such as broken doors, lock replacements and other ailing infrastructure.
The jail contained numerous “high security” people convicted of violent offenses who required a “restrictive housing environment that did not exist,” said Jay Mallett, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office chief of corrections. The sheriff’s office was in the process of transferring dozens to more secure locations.
Hutson is facing reelection this year, and at least one of her opponents, former interim New Orleans Police Superintendent Michelle Woodfork, demanded she answer questions about the escape. Williams, the district attorney, appointed Woodfork to a position in his office last year.
Noting the sheriff's race was starting, Hutson called the timing of the escape “suspicious." She did not elaborate.
This combo from photos provided by Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office shows from left top: Dkenan Dennis, Gary C Price, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Corey E Boyd. Bottom from left: Lenton Vanburen Jr, Jermaine Donald, Antonine T Massey, Derrick D. Groves, and Leo Tate Sr. (Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via AP)
