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New Orleans jail escape: 2 inmates still at large after 8 recaptured
New Orleans jail escape: 2 inmates still at large after 8 recaptured
New Orleans jail escape: 2 inmates still at large after 8 recaptured

Published on: 05/27/2025

Description

NEW ORLEANS (TNND) — Only two inmates remain on the run after 10 escaped from a New Orleans jail on May 16 using a hole behind a toilet, according to police.

Three more were arrested on Monday after being located in Baton Rouge and Walker County, Texas.

"Lenton Vanburen was arrested in Baton Rouge by the Baton Rouge Police Department," the Louisiana Police Department said. "Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald were arrested in Walker County, Texas by the Texas Department of Public Safety."

Law enforcement didn't learn about the escape until more than seven hours after the men fled the facility at 1 a.m. by squeezing through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a barbed-wire fence, authorities said.

The men range in age from 19 to 42 and face a variety of charges including aggravated assault, domestic abuse battery and murder.

The FBI increased its reward amount from $5,000 to $10,000 per escapee, while the CrimeStoppers reward was increased from $2,000 to $5,000, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was offering $5,000.

Several people have been arrested since the escape for allegedly assisting some of the fugitives.

For allegedly assisting Antoine Massey (still at large):

  • Diamond White, 21, was charged with principal to aggravated escape and obstruction of justice for assisting Antoine Massey

For allegedly assisting Lenton Vanburn (captured):

  • Lenika Vanburen, 28, charged with accessory after the fact
  • Tyshanae Randolph, 27, charged with accessory after the fact
  • Patricia Vanburen, 18, charged with accessory after the fact
  • Angel McKay, 41, charged with accessory after the fact
  • Lenton Vanburen Sr., 48, charged with accessory after the fact

Police said they were all booked into the Plaquemines Parish jail.

Four other people were also charged last week with accessory after the fact.

Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker at the jail, was the first arrest in connection with the escaped inmates.

Williams, 38, admitted to agents that one of the escapees told him to turn the water off in the cell where the inmates escaped from or they would "shank him," according to investigators.

His attorney, Michael Kennedy, told The Associated Press that his client shut off the water to unclog a toilet.

“This was clearly all part of an orchestrated plan,” Kennedy said. Williams “was nothing more than the tool they used to turn off the water, which they knew would have to happen after clogging the toilet.”

He was charged with 10 counts of principal to simple escape and malfeasance in office. His bond amount was set at $1.1 million, which is $100,000 for each charge he is facing.

News Source : https://wfxl.com/news/nation-world/new-orleans-jail-escape-2-inmates-still-at-large-after-8-recaptured-louisiana-police-department-toilet-hole-assisting-fugitives-accessory-after-the-fact-reward-plaquemines-parish

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