A maintenance worker was arrested after a New Orleans jailbreak. Here's what to know

Authorities are searching for more than half of the 10 men who escaped from a New Orleans jail on Friday by climbing through a hole in the wall behind a toilet, scaling a fence and crossing an interstate, leaving a taunting message behind.

As of Tuesday, Louisiana authorities have captured four of the suspects and made their first arrest in the case: a jail employee accused of facilitating the escape.

Six men remain on the loose, some of whom are facing serious charges including second-degree murder. Officials are asking the public to stay alert and report tips or anything suspicious, offering up to $20,000 in rewards for each suspect apprehended.

While the search continues, Louisiana authorities are pointing fingers and raising questions about what led to the jailbreak, from accusations of mismanagement at the facility to concerns that the escapees had help on the inside.

Gov. Jeff Landry — a Republican who has pushed a tough-on-crime agenda since taking office in 2024 — announced a slew of investigations into the state's criminal justice system on Monday.

"This massive jailbreak, which my statistics tell me could be the largest jailbreak in the history of this state, should never have happened," Landry said, according to member station WWNO.

Here's what we know so far.

Who escaped, and who is still on the loose? 

The escapees range in age from their teens to early 40s, though most are in their 20s. Three were captured on Friday, the day of the escape.

Law enforcement found Kendell Myles in the French Quarter and rebooked him — on a new charge of simple escape — after a short chase, Louisiana State Police said. By the end of that day they had captured two more suspects, both with the help of Crimestoppers tips: Robert Moody and Dkenan Dennis.

Authorities found the fourth suspect, Gary Price, on Monday, also in New Orleans. State police say Price, who was originally jailed on charges including attempted first-degree murder and domestic abuse — faces new charges, including simple escape and unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling. He has been transported to a "secure state facility outside of the area."

The six individuals still on the run are Antoine Massey, Lenton Vanburen, Jermaine Donald, Leo Tate, Derrick Groves and Corey Boyd.

The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office (OPSO) says more than 200 law enforcement personnel are part of the ongoing search and is asking the public to stay vigilant.

District Attorney Jason Williams said the "armed and dangerous men" pose a risk to the parish and possibly beyond. He said two lawyers who had helped secure the conviction of one of the escapees "got out of town this weekend with their families, out of fear of retribution and retaliation."

How did the men escape? 

The OPSO says the incarcerated individuals were reported missing from the Orleans Justice Center during a routine headcount at 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning. It turned out they had been gone for hours.

According to a timeline from the sheriff's office, video footage shows several detainees "jarring open the sliding door" to the cell with the hole at 12:22 a.m. They entered the cell by 12:43 a.m. and by 1 a.m. were seen on surveillance cameras fleeing the facility through a loading dock door.

Surveillance footage released by the sheriff's office shows the men, wearing grey and orange jail clothes, jumping off a low platform and running away at full speed. The sheriff's office also released photos taken inside the cell that show the hole behind the toilet. A smiley face and several messages were scrawled on the wall, including: "To easy LoL."

Some 20 minutes later they were seen scaling a fence on the perimeter, "using blankets to avoid injury from the barbed wire."

"From there, they fled across both directions of I-10 and into a nearby neighborhood, where OPSO investigators later recovered discarded clothing believed to belong to the escapees," it added.

Why do authorities think the escapees had help? 

In the immediate wake of the escape, the sheriff's office identified several lapses at the facility.

It said that at the time of the escape, no deputy was assigned to the pod where the suspects were housed, and the civilian employee stationed there had "stepped away briefly for food." A review of the physical security infrastructure also showed signs of tampering.

"Prior to the escape, steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures were intact," the sheriff's office said. "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."

The sheriff's office said it had placed three employees on suspension without pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson told reporters that defective locks on cell doors were partly to blame. But she also said, "There's no way for anyone to get out of this facility without help."

Hutson said her office has an "indication" that the detainees got assistance from "individuals inside our department."

"There were supervisors on duty," Hutson said. There were lower-level folks on duty, and they all had a job to do, and we're going to find out exactly what happened."

Who was arrested? 

On Tuesday, the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation arrested a jail employee in connection with the escape. It says 33-year-old Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker at the sheriff's office, admitted to agents that "one of the escapees advised him to turn the water off in the cell where the inmates escaped from."

"Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape," it said.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is investigating "everything that occurred before the violent inmates at the Orleans Justice Center crossed the wall."

"We will uncover all the facts eventually and anyone who aided and abetted will be prosecuted to the full extent the law allows," she said on Tuesday.

The Orleans Parish jail has been under a federal consent decree since 2013, and federal monitors' compliance reports over the years warned that the OPSO was not meeting certain safety and supervision requirements, even since Hutson took over in 2022.

Hutson has come under increased scrutiny since the jailbreak, with at least one state representative calling for her to resign. Hutson said Friday that she "wrote letters to the consent decree judge, city council and everyone who would listen" about funding for things like defective locks. Declining to outright apologize to the public, she suggested the escape could be part of a political conspiracy, "as we're getting ready to start this sheriff's race."

What's happening now? 

In addition to the attorney general's investigation, the governor has also directed the Department of Corrections to audit the jail for compliance with basic guidelines and to remove all incarcerated people from the facility.

"The cost [of the audit], it doesn't matter what the cost is, the matter of fact is it needs to be done," Landry said Sunday. "We're going to have that completed by the end of the week."

WWNO reports he is also issuing executive orders to examine aspects of the broader criminal justice system, including tasking the state inspector general with identifying all pretrial detainees still awaiting sentencing and asking the state judiciary committee to investigate judges with high acquittal rates or slow case progress.

"Nine of these 10 escapees were sitting in jail waiting to go to trial," he said. "Had they gone to trial, had they been convicted, had they been sentenced, they would most likely not be in Orleans Parish Jail, and in our custody in one of the state penitentiaries."

He named Derrick Groves — who was convicted of second-degree murder in a 2018 Mardi Gras double shooting — as one example.

"If he would've been sentenced by a court system, he most likely would not have had an opportunity to escape," Landry said.

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