A man who was the last inmate to be apprehended following an audacious New Orleans jailbreak has been handed two life sentences for a double murder committed in 2018.
The Louisiana judge presiding over the case sternly rebuked Derrick Groves for the disruption caused by his five months on the run.
Groves, 28, appeared in a New Orleans courtroom in shackles and an orange jumpsuit, two months after investigators finally tracked him down and captured him hiding beneath a house in Atlanta.
He and nine other inmates had made their escape in May by crawling through a hole behind a jail toilet, leaving behind graffiti that brazenly declared, “To Easy LoL.”
Last year, a jury convicted Groves of two counts of second-degree murder for the killings of Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson during a shooting at a Mardi Gras party in 2018. He had also previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in two separate fatal shootings.
Orleans Parish Judge Dennis Waldron stated that Groves’ escape had caused “concern, disappointment, frustration and displeasure” to the court. The judge highlighted how the killings compounded a tragedy already endured by Groves’ family, noting that his grandmother, Kim Groves, was murdered in 1994 on the orders of a corrupt New Orleans police officer after she reported misconduct.
“He chose to not honor the memory of his grandmother as she lay in that street in the Ninth ward, shot to death,” Waldron said. “He made that conscious decision to go the other way and to kill, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times.”
Kadija Jackson, the sister of one of the victims, shared her grief, explaining that she sends photos of her brother to his daughter so the girl can show friends she once had a father. Ms Jackson recounted finding her brother dying inside a car after Groves fired an AK-style rifle.
“He lifted his head, but deep down, I knew he wasn’t going to make it,” she said sobbing. “That moment shattered something inside me. Since that day my life has felt like it is missing a a piece that it felt it could never replace.”
As she spoke, Groves was observed smirking and nodding from the defence table, later turning to stare at her and the other victims’ supporters across the courtroom.
Peter Freiberg, Groves’ attorney, stated that his client maintains his innocence and plans to appeal his convictions, while expressing sympathy for the victims’ families.
However, the judge asserted that Groves showed no remorse and that the city would be far safer with him imprisoned for life. In addition to the two life sentences, Groves was convicted of two counts of attempted murder for wounding others in the 2018 shooting. Judge Waldron imposed two 50-year sentences for these convictions, to be served consecutively with the life terms.
The judge also referenced video footage of Groves smiling and blowing kisses while being led away after his capture in Georgia.
“It is almost as if Mr. Groves thought he were a guest at a presidential motorcade as opposed to a captured fugitive, riding in a police SWAT convoy,” Waldron said. “These actions may be considered a final act of defiance.”
