All 10 fugitives who made a brazen escape from a New Orleans jail in May are back in custody after the last inmate who was still on the run was captured hiding in the basement crawl space of an Atlanta home.
Derrick Groves, 28, was found Wednesday holed up beneath the home by a police dog sent inside after an Atlanta Police Department SWAT team spent hours searching the home and deploying tear gas into it.
The other nine inmates had been recaptured within six weeks of the May 16 breakout, most of them in Louisiana.
A New Orleans jury convicted Groves last year of killing two people after he opened fire on a family block party in what prosecutors said was a feud with rival drug dealers. He faces life in prison on that conviction.
A brazen escape from a New Orleans jail
Groves and nine other men made the audacious overnight escape by fleeing through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a wall while the lone guard assigned to their cell pod at the New Orleans jail was away getting food.
The men scaled a fence and used blankets to avoid being cut by barbed wire. Surveillance footage showed some of them sprinting across a nearby interstate and into a neighborhood.
Following the jailbreak, law enforcement tracked down three escapees within 24 hours and most of the others within the next few weeks. While some of the fugitives roamed through nightlife hot spots and another made Instagram posts, Groves had kept keep a low profile.
A tip brought authorities to an Atlanta home
The tip leading to Groves’ capture came in via New Orleans Crimestoppers, an anonymous tip program, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Fair. Groves was the only person in the house, and no one else was arrested.
But multiple people appeared to have helped Groves, and they could face charges for aiding and abetting, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said.
The garage door of the brick house was collapsed inward and blocked off by police after Groves was taken into custody. The home is in a neighborhood beside Tyler Perry Studios, one of the nation’s largest movie production facilities.
“Based on how long it took a seasoned, well-trained SWAT team to get him out, he had planned to hide for a while,” Fair said.
Shirtless, shoeless and shackled at his wrists and ankles, Groves blew a kiss then grinned at someone filming him being led into a police car, in video provided by the Atlanta Police Department.
Police also found a pistol and 15 pounds of marijuana inside the home, Murrill said.
Police say Groves will be sent back to Louisiana
Groves was booked into the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta Wednesday afternoon. He is charged with being a fugitive from justice, jail records show.
Groves is scheduled to be in court Thursday for a hearing on his extradition back to Louisiana, Murrill said.
Groves’ attorney in Louisiana, Peter Freiberg, said late Wednesday afternoon he had not yet spoken with his client and declined to comment.
The nine other men accused of breaking out of the city jail pleaded not guilty to escape charges in July. The escape charge carries a sentence of two to five years in prison.
