Hundreds of law enforcement officials are involved in a weeks-long manhunt Tuesday searching for two men who remain at large after a group of 10 inmates broke out of a New Orleans-area jail in the early morning hours of May 16.
Police say the escapees from the Orleans Justice Center had inside help.
Three Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office employees have been suspended, and a maintenance worker has been arrested for allegedly aiding the escapees. Three other non-employees have also been arrested for their alleged roles in helping the men who escaped.
"There were procedural failures and missed notifications. There was also intentional wrongdoings. This was a coordinated effort aided by individuals inside our own agency who chose to break the law,” Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, who is facing calls to resign, told the New Orleans City Council on May 20. “One arrest has been made and we are continuing to pursue everyone involved.”
Here’s what you need to know about the shocking escape:
Who escaped and who has been captured?
A group of 10 men was seen running out of a loading dock toward freedom at 1 a.m. the morning of the escape.
The sheriff’s office has named them as Antoine Massey, Lenton Vanburen, Leo Tate, Kendell Myles, Derrick Groves, Jermaine Donald, Corey Boyd, Gary Price, Robert Moody, and Dkenan Dennis.
State police captured Myles later that morning as he hid beneath a car in the parking garage of Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter of New Orleans. They reportedly relied in part on a private network of facial recognition cameras for a tip on his location.
Moody and Dennis were captured the evening of the escape, the sheriff’s office told The Independent.
The state police and the New Orleans Police Department captured Price in New Orleans East, the sheriff’s office announced on May 19.
FBI agents tracked Boyd, who was arrested by Louisiana State Police in Iberville on May 20.
Vanburen was captured Monday in Baton Rouge, about 72 miles northwest of New Orleans, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said.
He was originally in jail on charges of parole violation, possession of a firearm by a felon, and illegal carrying of a weapon, but will now face additional charges related to his escape, Murrill said.
Officers also arrested Tate and Donald Monday in Walker County, Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced.
Officials had warned that the men should be considered armed and dangerous, and cautioned members of the public not to approach any of said. the escapees and instead call 911.
🚨ESCAPED INMATES🚨
— New Orleans Police Department (@NOPDNews) May 16, 2025
11 men escaped OPSO custody at the Orleans Parish Jail — 10 remain at large.
If you recognize anyone pictured, DO NOT APPROACH — they may be armed & dangerous.
Call 911 immediately.
ANYONE HELPING THESE ESCAPEES WILL BE ARRESTED & CHARGED AS AN ACCOMPLICE. pic.twitter.com/xxSiwd4gi0
Police previously said an 11th man, Keith Lewis, was part of the group that escaped, but later discovered he had been moved to a different cell and was briefly unaccounted for. In fact, he remained in custody and was not part of the breakout.
Reward Increase; total amount applies to each fugitive - $20,000
— LA State Police (@LAStatePolice) May 19, 2025
Over 200 Law Enforcement Officers are working around the clock to locate the fugitives.
LSP Fusion Center: 225-925-4192
Crimestoppers GNO: 504-822-1111
FBI: 1-800-CALL-FBI https://t.co/t4JjBvmncj
State and federal officials offered a combined $20,000 reward per inmate for information regarding their whereabouts.
How did they get out?
Inmates began their escape just after midnight, repeatedly pulling on a sliding cell door until it derailed.
Next, they were able to pull bathroom fixtures off their mountings, and are thought to have squeezed through a hole in the wall.
“A review of the physical security infrastructure revealed signs of tampering,” the sheriff’s office told The Independent. “Prior to the escape, steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures were intact. After the escape, at least one steel bar appeared to have been intentionally cut using a tool, compromising the integrity of the pod’s security features.”
By 1 a.m., the men made it to the jail’s supply loading bay, then used blankets to scale a security wall with razor wire and ran across Interstate 10, fleeing into the wider New Orleans area.
Arrests pile up of those accused of aiding plot
A jail maintenance worker was arrested on May 19 for allegedly helping the men break out of the jail.
An escapee allegedly told Sterling Williams, 33, a maintenance worker with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, to turn off the water in the cell from which the men escaped.
“Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
Williams said one of the escapees, Antoine Massey, threatened to “shank” him if he didn’t go along with the plot, according to an arrest warrant obtained by NOLA.com.
The worker complied, accessing a valve in a mechanical corridor behind the cells to turn off the water supply, per the warrant.
Williams allegedly did not offer this information about his accused part in the escape to authorities on his own, but rather under questioning from the Louisiana Bureau of Investigations.
The 33-year-old has been charged with malfeasance in office and 10 counts of being principal to an escape.
Williams is due next in court in June, and his bond has been set at $1.1 million.
Three others have been arrested for allegedly aiding the escaped men, according to authorities.
Cortnie Harris, 32, of New Orleans, is accused of being in contact with an escapee before the breakout, then transporting two of the escaped men to locations around New Orleans after the plot took place. Both men she transported remain at large, police say.
Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, of Slidell, is accused of being in phone and social media contact with Boyd and helping him get food while he was in hiding in a residence. Boyd has since been captured.
Casey Smith, 30, is accused of helping two of the inmates in the hours after their escape. Police say she admitted to helping with the escapees’ transport along with Harris.
During a May 21 tour of the jail at the center of the manhunt, District Attorney Jason Williams said “certainly more than one person” is responsible for the escape and that he expects more arrests soon.
What could have been done to stop the escape?
Officials have admitted multiple security lapses helped the men escape.
The sheriff’s office told The Independent the men were able to escape due to “defective locks and doors,” and noted that approximately one-third of the security cameras throughout the facility are currently inoperable, including three cameras in the unit where the men escaped.
A surveillance technician was on duty at the time of the escape, but the men were nonetheless “able to breach a wall behind a toilet in their housing unit which was out of view,” the sheriff’s office told The Independent.
“At the time of the escape, no deputy was assigned to Pod 1-D, and the civilian Corrections Technician Monitor (CMT) stationed at the pod module had stepped away briefly for food,” the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff Hutson has said the escapes highlighted the need for more funding to fix jail infrastructure, including the sliding cell doors, an issue she said she had raised in the past. The facility needs upwards of $5 million in upgrades, including to its cell doors, and the jail was only at about 60 percent staffing at the time of the breakout, the official argued.
The $145 million Orleans Justice Center opened in 2015 and is considered a relatively modern and state-of-the-art facility.
The previous sheriff, Marlin Gusman, dismissed claims that the jail was left in poor repair, accusing the current sheriff of playing “the blame game” in an interview with WDSU.
In 2023, monitors overseeing the jail as part of a larger federal consent decree in the city reported poor supervision, a spike in inmate violence, fatal overdoses, and the use of unnecessary force against detainees.
Did sheriffs fail to notify fellow police and the public?
Louisiana officials criticized the sheriff’s office for not notifying fellow law enforcement agencies and the public sooner.
“Someone clearly dropped the ball and there’s no excuse for this,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement on X.
The sheriff said she was made aware of the escape shortly after an 8:30 a.m. headcount at the jail revealed the missing men, hours after they had escaped.
New Orleans Police Chief Anna Kirkpatrick said during a press conference the day of the breakout that her agency didn’t learn about the escapes until around 10:30 a.m., two hours after the disappearance was discovered.
The sheriff’s office said the United States Marshals, Louisiana State Police, and state probation and parole officials were notified by 9:30 a.m., and the New Orleans Police Department was alerted immediately afterward through a police center.
What happens next?
The escape has prompted a storm of criticism, scrutiny, and calls for reform.
On May 18, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry ordered an audit of the jail, and Attorney General Murrill’s office is leading an investigation into how the inmates were able to escape the facility.
State lawmakers have introduced a bill requiring jails in the state to promptly notify the public about escapes.
