Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said authorities tracked down three more inmates who busted out of a New Orleans jail this month, leaving two remaining escapees on the lam.
Ms. Murrill said Lenton Vanburen, 26, was recaptured in Baton Rouge on Monday, while Leo Tate, 31, and Jermaine Donald, 42, were arrested in Walker County, Texas, just north of Houston.
Police in Huntsville, Texas, said they took Tate and Donald back into custody following a high-speed chase that ended with the inmates crashing their vehicle.
“This is a clear example of how effective collaboration and open communication between agencies can lead to successful outcomes,” Louisiana State Police said in a statement.
Vanburen was originally jailed at the Orleans Justice Center on weapons felony charges, while Donald was behind bars for murder charges and Tate was locked up on weapons, burglary and drug offenses.
All three recaptured inmates are facing charges related to the May 16 escape, the attorney general said.
Authorities said the overnight jailbreak involved inmates crowding into a cell, yanking off a toilet and bashing a hole into a wall before scaling a razor-wire fence surrounding the facility.
Half of the inmates were recaptured within five days after the escape, but others evaded law enforcement with the help of connections on the outside.
Thirteen people have been charged with assisting the escaped inmates.
Many of the suspected accomplices being charged are linked to Vanburen, providing him a place to stay and driving him to a resident’s home in Mississippi.
Others facing criminal charges include a jail employee accused of turning off the water to the cell toilet so the inmates could remove it and an OJC inmate who gave the escapees blankets and a shirt to help them scale the facility’s fence.
Those still on the run are Antoine Massey, 32, and Derrick Groves, 27. Massey was jailed on domestic abuse charges while Groves was accused of murder.
On top of the three inmates recently recaptured, police rearrested Corey Boyd, Dkenan Dennis, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles and Gary Price. They are all being held at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
