Five months after one of the most daring jail breaks in recent U.S. history, Derrick Groves—the last of ten inmates who escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center in New Orleans—was finally captured in Atlanta, Georgia. The saga, which began in the early morning hours of May 16, 2025, ended Wednesday, October 8, with Groves’ apprehension following a tense stand-off and a multi-agency manhunt that spanned several states and involved dozens of law enforcement officers.
Groves, 28, was discovered hiding in a crawl space beneath a house in southwest Atlanta. According to the Atlanta Police Department and Louisiana State Police, the arrest came after Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans received a tip that led authorities to the location. The Atlanta Police Department’s SWAT team deployed several gas canisters into the house to force Groves out, but he managed to evade officers for two to three hours before a police canine finally located him in the cramped space. Miraculously, Groves suffered only minor scrapes, and no officers or bystanders were injured in the operation, as noted by Deputy Chief Kelly Collier of the Atlanta Police (as reported by ABC News and BBC).
Groves’ capture marks the end of a months-long search for the last fugitive from a jailbreak that shocked New Orleans and the nation. The escape itself was audacious: Groves and nine others managed to remove a toilet from the wall of their cell, break through metal bars, and squeeze through a hole into a maintenance corridor. From there, they scaled a barbed-wire fence and vanished into the night. Investigators later found taunting messages scrawled on the wall above the escape hole, including an arrow pointing to the gap and the words, "To Easy LoL," along with a smiley face, as described by the BBC and Associated Press.
The inmates’ absence wasn’t discovered until a morning headcount, hours after their escape. This delay, coupled with ineffective cell locks and the fact that the lone guard assigned to monitor them had left to get food, led to fierce criticism of the jail’s management. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson attributed the escape to a "perfect storm" of staffing shortages and building design flaws, a point she reiterated to CBS News in August. State and local officials, however, have demanded more accountability, with some calling for major reforms at the Orleans Justice Center.
Groves was no ordinary escapee. Convicted in October 2024 of two counts of second-degree murder for a 2018 Mardi Gras Day shooting, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter in an unrelated case and was convicted of attempted murder and a federal firearms charge, according to court records and the Atlanta Police Department. His violent criminal history made him the most dangerous of the group, and authorities had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture, as confirmed by the Associated Press.
After the escape, law enforcement agencies launched a massive manhunt. Three of the ten fugitives were recaptured within 24 hours, while others were tracked down in the following weeks in locations ranging from Baton Rouge to Texas. The ninth escapee, Antoine Massey, was found in New Orleans in late June after a tip and a viral video appeal. By early July, only Groves remained at large.
The investigation into the jailbreak quickly revealed that the escape was no simple feat. Over a dozen people have been arrested on suspicion of aiding the escapees, including Groves’ girlfriend, Darriana Burton. According to affidavits and police statements, Burton played an "active role in the planning phase of the escape," relaying information and coordinating communications between Groves and outside contacts. Another inmate and a jail maintenance worker—accused of shutting off water to the toilet to facilitate its removal—were also arrested. The maintenance worker’s lawyer has maintained that he was simply unclogging the toilet and was unaware of the plot.
At least 16 people, many of them friends or relatives of the escapees, face felony charges for providing food, cash, transportation, and shelter to the fugitives. Police found a pistol and 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of marijuana in the Atlanta house where Groves was ultimately apprehended, according to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Authorities believe Groves had significant help during his time on the run. "He obviously had some help, and there will be a thorough investigation into any and everybody that helped him along the way, in whatever parish and whatever county that assistance came," Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said during a press briefing Wednesday, as cited by ABC News. Murrill echoed this, noting that "several people appeared to be helping Groves and could face charges for aiding and abetting." Groves was scheduled for an extradition hearing in Georgia the day after his arrest, and will soon be returned to Louisiana to face additional charges related to the escape.
Family members of the escapees expressed mixed emotions after the news broke. Groves’ mother, Stephanie Groves, told the Associated Press she was "all messed up" and just wanted to talk to her son. "I’m just glad it’s over with. Of course he was going to get caught," she said, describing how her family had been followed and watched by law enforcement since the breakout.
Officials at every level have responded to Groves’ capture with a sense of relief and urgency. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry congratulated law enforcement for putting all ten escapees "back where they belong: BEHIND BARS," in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams called the escape "a serious breach of public safety and a historic failure of custodial security," adding that Groves’ capture "brings long-awaited calm to victims, their families, the witnesses who testified, the assistant district attorneys who prosecuted him and the people of New Orleans who were rightly concerned that a convicted violent offender had escaped so easily and evaded justice for so long." Williams vowed to "pursue every available legal avenue to ensure that Derrick Groves answers for every crime he has committed and every consequence he has sought to avoid." Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also promised that Groves would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for his role in the escape.
All ten escapees now face additional charges of simple escape, which carries a penalty of two to five years in prison, on top of their original sentences. For Groves, whose violent past and life sentence already placed him among Louisiana’s most notorious inmates, the consequences of his five months on the run are only beginning to unfold.
With the last fugitive behind bars and investigations continuing into the network that helped him, New Orleans officials are left to confront the vulnerabilities that allowed the escape to happen in the first place. The episode has sparked renewed calls for reform and accountability at the Orleans Justice Center—a reminder that, even after the headlines fade, the work of rebuilding public trust is far from over.
