The last remaining fugitive who broke out of a New Orleans jail in May was captured Wednesday in Atlanta, after more than four months on the run.
Derrick Groves was taken into custody following a standoff with police at a home in southwest Atlanta, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The U.S. Marshals Service said information from CrimeStoppers helped authorities take Groves into custody.
At the time of the escape, Groves was incarcerated on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.
Groves was one of 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16. They are accused of yanking open a faulty cell door, removing a toilet from the wall, and crawling through a hole to flee.
Messages including "To easy LOL" and "We Innocent" were seen scrawled on the wall above the hole, photos released by the sheriff's office showed.
Three inmates — Kendell Myles, Robert Moody and Dkenan Dennis — were captured within hours. Gary Price was captured on May 19, and Corey Boyd was apprehended the following day.
On May 26, three more inmates were taken into custody. Jermaine Donald and Leo Tate were arrested in Texas, and Lenton Vanburen was apprehended in Baton Rouge.
Antoine Massey was arrested at a New Orleans home in June.
During the investigation into the escape, more than a dozen people were arrested and accused of helping the inmates, including Groves’ girlfriend, Darriana Burton. The Louisiana Office of the Attorney General said she exchanged text messages and video calls with Groves while he was in jail.
Authorities said Groves intentionally kept a call vague because it was being recorded and implied that he would set up a follow-up call that wouldn’t be monitored, according to Burton’s affidavit for an arrest warrant. Investigators said the follow-up call was intended to discuss the escape.
Sterling Williams, a jail maintenance worker, was also arrested after authorities said he cut off the water so the inmates could remove the toilet from the wall.
A lawyer for Williams has denied aiding in the escape and said that he had turned the water off because the toilet in an unused handicapped cell was clogged.
