More than a week after 10 prisoners conducted a daring escape out a bathroom wall in a New Orleans jail, two inmates remain on the run, prompting an intensified search across state lines.
Authorities on Monday captured three escapees: Lenton Vanburen, Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald. Tate and Donald were the first of the escaped inmates to be found outside Louisiana. They were arrested in Texas after what the Huntsville Police Department described as a high-speed chase involving multiple law enforcement agencies.
Now with eight escapees recaptured, the manhunt continues for the last two remaining inmates –– Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves –– both of whom should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities say.
Here’s what we know about them.
An experienced fugitive
Antoine Massey is no stranger to breakouts. The 33-year-old has a history of escapes dating back to 2007, when he broke out of a New Orleans juvenile detention center after being arrested for armed robbery and aggravated assault, according to nola.com.
A broken lock at the center allowed Massey, then 15, and five other juveniles to access metal shackles, which they used to shatter a window and escape, nola.com reported. The teen stayed on the run for more than two weeks before authorities found him on an interstate in east New Orleans.
Two years later, Massey faced a charge of attempted simple escape in Orleans Parish, according to online court records. CNN reached out to the parish sheriff’s office for more details about the circumstances around the charge.
At 27, Massey and another inmate broke out of a detention center in northern Louisiana in broad daylight by cutting and slipping under a chain-link fence in the exercise yard, Chief James Mardis of the Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office told CNN last week. The two men were believed to have been picked up by a vehicle with Texas tags that was seen in the area. Massey was caught in Texas later that day.
Massey has also twice cut off electronic ankle monitors, according to Matt Dennis, an employee with the company that operates the monitors who spoke to CNN affiliate WDSU. Court records from late 2023 alleged Massey had “tampered and/or removed the court-ordered GPS monitor.”
Dennis told CNN affiliate WVUE he was “astonished” that someone with Massey’s history of escape was being held on the first floor of the New Orleans jail.
“There isn’t an ounce of this man’s history that doesn’t say ‘escape’,” Dennis said.
Chief Mardis, who shared details of the inmate’s 2019 escape, said it was no shock to learn of the current breakout: “It didn’t surprise me, because (Massey) was known for that.”
It’s still unclear how big of a role Massey may have played in planning this month’s jailbreak, which the Orleans Parish sheriff has described as a “coordinated effort.”
The 10 inmates escaped through a hole in the wall behind a metal toilet in a handicapped cell. The escapees appear to have scrawled “To Easy LoL” on the cell wall. The jailbreak has been blamed on a combination of faulty locks, stolen blankets and possible help from inside the jail.
As of Tuesday morning, it is believed that at least 13 people helped the 10 escaped inmates – either before or after the May 16 jailbreak. The growing number of arrests provides new insight into just how elaborate and far-reaching the planned jailbreak may have been.
Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker who turned off the water to the toilet, is charged with aiding the escape. Massey purportedly threatened to shank Williams if he did not turn off the water, according to an affidavit, but Williams’ attorney later told the Associated Press that one of the jail’s deputies asked Williams to fix the toilet because it was overflowing.
“Yes, someone said they would shank him … (but) they didn’t say it in a particularly threatening manner. They said it more as an aside,” Michael Kennedy, the attorney for Williams, told the AP.
Kennedy argues Williams was only doing his job and that jail officials are “trying to use him as a scapegoat to minimize their own embarrassment” over the breakout.
Convicted killer in 2018 Mardi Gras murders
The other escaped inmate who’s still at large is 27-year-old Derrick Groves, who was being held at the New Orleans jail after being convicted near the end of last year in the killing of two people on Mardi Gras day in 2018.
Groves was found to be one of the gunmen who opened fire with AK-47-style assault rifles “on what should have been a joyous Mardi Gras family gathering,” the district attorney’s office said.
Groves was found guilty of two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder, charges that carry a life sentence, according to the district attorney.
Groves’ aunt, Jasmine Groves, told CNN affiliate WDSU that she wants her nephew to turn himself in and that she hopes deadly force will not be used against him. She said she’s seen police cars and helicopters around her and other family members’ homes since the breakout.
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