Girlfriend of New Orleans fugitive Derrick Groves arrested as search continues for final 2 escapees
A lady accused of serving to escaped New Orleans inmate Derrick Groves was arrested Monday amid the continued seek for him and fellow escapee Antoine Massey.
Darriana Burton, Groves’ girlfriend, is accused of aiding in his escape, the Louisiana Workplace of the Lawyer Common stated in a information launch.
Burton allegedly exchanged textual content messages and video calls with Groves whereas he was nonetheless in jail. In a single name, Groves deliberately stored the dialog imprecise as a result of he knew it was being recorded and implied that he would arrange a follow-up name that wouldn’t be monitored, in keeping with Burton’s affidavit for an arrest warrant.
The follow-up name was supposed to debate the escape, together with transportation and the potential timing, it says.
Burton, 28, was arrested with out incident. She faces a felony cost of conspiracy to commit easy escape. It is not clear if Burton has obtained an lawyer.
“We are going to proceed to pursue anybody and everybody who has aided and abetted these criminals,” Lawyer Common Liz Murrill stated in an announcement. “We are going to discover you, arrest you, and prosecute you to the total extent of the regulation. I’d wish to thank the US Marshals Service for executing our warrant for this girl.”
Burton labored for the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Workplace up till her termination in March 2023 after she was arrested and accused of bringing contraband into the jail. The fees associated to that incident had been refused final 12 months by the district lawyer’s workplace, in keeping with the Louisiana Workplace of the Lawyer Common.
Groves was certainly one of 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Heart on Might 16. They’re accused of yanking open a defective cell door, eradicating a bathroom from the wall, crawling by way of a gap, leaping off the loading dock and scaling a barbed-wire fence earlier than fleeing in numerous instructions.
Groves and Massey stay on the run. In Might, authorities upped the reward for his or her seize to $50,000 every.
Greater than a dozen folks have been arrested and accused of aiding within the escape. A kind of arrested was jail upkeep employee, Sterling Williams, who was accused of slicing the water off so inmates might take away the bathroom from the wall. An affidavit for an arrest warrant stated Williams informed authorities that Massey threatened to shank him if he didn’t assist.
A lawyer for Williams stated the affidavit is a “mischaracterization” and that his consumer turned the water off as a result of the bathroom in an unused handicapped cell was clogged, not as a result of he was aiding within the escape.
Murrill stated Monday that authorities will proceed to go after individuals who helped with the escape.
“We are going to arrest all aiders and abettors, and we’ll finally get Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves again to jail the place they belong,” she stated.