The only escaped Louisiana inmate who remained on the run following an audacious May jailbreak in which 10 men crawled through a hole behind a toilet has been found in Atlanta, the US Marshals said Wednesday. Derrick Groves was taken into custody at a house after evading authorities for nearly five months, Deputy US Marshal Brian Fair confirmed. Sgt. Kate Stegall, a spokesperson for the Louisiana State Police, also said Groves was in custody after a brief standoff, the AP reports.
Groves, 28, had been convicted of murder and was facing a possible life sentence before the jailbreak. He had the most violent criminal record of the escapees and authorities had offered a $50,000 reward for tips that lead to his recapture. "He was hiding in a crawl space," Fair said. "It appears he was the only one in this house and he was hidden pretty well." No one else was arrested, Fair said. Groves was arrested by the US Marshals southeast regional fugitive task force and Atlanta Police Department SWAT team, Fair said.
- The other nine escapees were recaptured within six weeks of breaking out of the New Orleans jail on May 16, and most were found still in Louisiana.
- Groves and the nine other men yanked open a faulty cell door inside the New Orleans jail, squeezed through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed-wire fence, and fled into the cover of darkness. With 10 men on the lam, it was one of the largest jailbreaks in recent US history.
- The inmates' absence wasn't discovered until a morning headcount, hours after they bolted for freedom. At the scene of the crime, the cell where the men removed a toilet to sneak through a hole, they left a message. On the cell wall they drew an arrow, pointing at the gap they slipped through—above it was a graffitied message: "To Easy LoL.
- City and state officials have pointed to multiple security lapses at the jail, including ineffective cell locks and the assertion that the inmates got out when the lone guard monitoring them went to get food. But authorities remain adamant that the men also likely had help and that the escape may have been an inside job.
- At least 16 people, many of them friends and family of the escapees, have been accused of aiding the fugitives before or after the jailbreak and were arrested on felony charges. Court documents allege that those people provided food, cash, transport, and shelter.
- The nine other men pleaded not guilty to escape charges in July, appearing via video call from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. "Everyone is entitled to due process. But there's a video of these detainees running out of the jail in the middle of the night. They were not heading to court hearings," state Attorney General Liz Murrill said. "We will continue to hold everyone accountable for the escape."
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