Derrick Groves, final New Orleans jailbreak escapee, captured : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1174x616+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/png/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F29%2Fb7%2F5824042e48658b6d8140a7cbc4df%2Fscreenshot-2025-10-09-092934.png" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1174x616+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F29%2Fb7%2F5824042e48658b6d8140a7cbc4df%2Fscreenshot-2025-10-09-092934.png" class="img" alt="Groves, seen being put into the back of a police car in a video of his arrest by Atlanta police." fetchpriority="high"/> Derrick Groves, seen right here in a video of his arrest by Atlanta police, is anticipated to be extradited again to Louisiana. Atlanta Police Division cover caption

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Atlanta Police Division Derrick Groves, the final of the ten males who escaped from a New Orleans jail in Could, was captured within the crawl house of a house in Atlanta on Wednesday.

The escapees, who ranged in age from their teenagers to early 40s, broke out of the Orleans Parish Justice Heart within the early hours of Could 16 by climbing by way of a gap within the wall behind a rest room, scaling a fence and crossing an interstate.

By the point authorities found them lacking throughout a routine morning head rely, they have been lengthy gone, abandoning a smiley face and a number of other taunting messages — together with "To straightforward LoL" — scrawled on the toilet wall.

Three of the escapes have been recaptured in New Orleans later that very same day, and all however two had been taken into custody by the tip of Could. The ninth inmate, Antoine Massey, was apprehended six weeks after the jailbreak, in late June.

That left solely Groves on the run. The 28-year-old convicted assassin eluded authorities for months, regardless of a multi-agency effort to trace him down.

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Robert Hodges instructed reporters on Wednesday that the duty pressure investigating the jailbreak discovered in early October that Groves was doubtless within the Atlanta space. They traced him to a selected residence by way of "data gathered by way of a number of search warrants and different investigative means."

Police, U.S. Marshals and a SWAT staff arrived on the home in southwest Atlanta on Thursday to execute warrants, and finally took Groves into custody after what police described as a quick standoff.

"We deployed a variety of canisters of gasoline to assist transfer him all through the home … he moved to the basement of the home," Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Kelley Collier stated on the scene. "Quickly after, Clayton County Okay-9 was deployed within the crawl house of the placement, and located him in that crawl house."

Officers declined to say what introduced Groves to that specific home or how lengthy he had been there. However Collier stated nobody else was inside on the time of his apprehension.

A video of Groves' arrest, shared by the Atlanta Police Division, reveals Groves blowing a kiss to the digicam as he's helped into the again of a cruiser.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry cheered the information of the tenth and last escapee's seize on social media.

"You picked the fallacious State," Landry wrote. "Thanks to our unbelievable legislation enforcement officers from the federal, state, and native stage who labored tirelessly to place every of those males again the place they belong: BEHIND BARS."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5712x3808+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb8%2F1d%2Fd2a5bf834b2eb8bce4c9e885e470%2Fap25281715575890.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5712x3808+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb8%2F1d%2Fd2a5bf834b2eb8bce4c9e885e470%2Fap25281715575890.jpg" class="img" alt="The Atlanta house where Derrick Groves was taken into custody on Wednesday." loading="lazy"/> The Atlanta home the place Derrick Groves was taken into custody on Wednesday, 5 months after he and 9 different males escaped from a New Orleans jail. Charlotte Kramon/AP cover caption

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Charlotte Kramon/AP What occurs subsequent? Groves was convicted final October and sentenced to life in jail on two counts of homicide in reference to a 2018 Mardi Gras-day double taking pictures.

He was additionally convicted of two counts of tried homicide and a federal firearms cost, for which he was awaiting sentencing on the Orleans Parish Justice Heart on the time of the jailbreak.

Groves, like the opposite 9 escapees, has additionally been charged with easy escape. Louisiana Legal professional Normal Liz Murrill stated he has a listening to scheduled for Thursday at which he can select to waive extradition, or else the state will provoke proceedings to carry him again.

"He will probably be arraigned on these costs as quickly as we get him again from Georgia," Murrill stated at Wednesday's press convention, including that he'll ultimately be a part of the opposite escapees within the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Murrill stated her workplace is wanting into whether or not it will probably improve Grove's costs to aggravated escape in mild of the supplies found on the Atlanta home, which she stated "included weapons and medicines."

She additionally stated she expects Groves to be prosecuted in Georgia, "and probably by the feds."

"He is bought a whole lot of hassle and a whole lot of issues to reply to, to each the state of Louisiana and the state of Georgia," Murrill stated, including that the manhunt was costly in addition to scary for district lawyer employees, victims and witnesses within the instances that put Groves behind bars.

"It is a very unsettling factor to have any person out like this … so right now is an excellent day."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F48%2F1d%2Fd99740454137b1b6096ee74a46a0%2Fap25137453272012-1.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F48%2F1d%2Fd99740454137b1b6096ee74a46a0%2Fap25137453272012-1.jpg" class="img" alt="A combination of mug shots of the 10 escapees, provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office." loading="lazy"/> A mixture of photographs supplied by theOrleans Parish Sheriff's Workplace reveals all ten recaptured escapees, from high left: Dkenan Dennis, Gary C Value, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Corey E Boyd. Backside from left: Lenton Vanburen Jr, Jermaine Donald, Antonine T Massey, Derrick D. Groves, and Leo Tate Sr. AP/Orleans Parish Sheriff's Workplace cover caption

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AP/Orleans Parish Sheriff's Workplace Who else is going through costs? Murrill vowed that anybody who might have helped Groves will probably be arrested and prosecuted.

Greater than a dozen folks have been arrested for aiding the escapees, each in jail and as soon as they bought out.

These embrace a jail worker who instructed investigators that he turned the water off within the cell after one of many inmates "threatened to shank him" (he maintains he was simply unclogging a rest room and was unaware of the escape plans), in addition to one other man being held in the identical jail who faces 10 counts of "principal to easy escape."

Within the weeks after the jailbreak, authorities charged 11 different folks with "accent after the actual fact" for alleged actions together with contacting the inmates by telephone earlier than and after their escape, transporting them on the surface and supplying some with meals and money.

One other twist got here in June, when a former correctional heart worker — and Groves' girlfriend — was arrested on a felony cost of conspiracy to commit easy escape, "in reference to the current escape of a number of inmates."

Murrill's workplace stated Darriana Burton, Groves' "on-again, off-again" girlfriend of three years, was a sheriff's workplace worker from August 2022 till March 2023, when she was fired — however not charged — for bringing contraband into the jail.

The Related Press, citing a police affidavit for Burton's arrest, reported that Groves video known as Burton on a jail-issued iPad two days earlier than the escape, and she or he helped him communicate with an unidentified man in a imprecise dialog that "appeared to coordinate communication on different, unmonitored traces." A decide set her bond at $2.5 million.

Louisiana politicians say there are others in charge for the jailbreak, pointing the finger at one another in addition to broader systemic failures.

Gov. Landry, a Republican who has pushed a tough-on-crime agenda, has blamed progressive politics and ordered a number of investigations into New Orleans' felony justice system. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson has taken accountability for the jailbreak but additionally blamed a scarcity of assets, from defective locks to staffing shortages, in addition to the escapees' community of accomplices.

In July, one other inmate on the similar jail was mistakenly launched resulting from what officers say was a clerical error stemming from two comparable final names. Khalil Bryan was captured in August, after a monthlong manhunt, and two deputies have been fired over the incident. That very same month, Hutson introduced the ability had secured $15 million to make security and safety upgrades.