New Orleans jail escapee was caught with help from an anonymous tip; 2 inmates still on the run
Lenton Vanburen Jr., 26, was found Monday evening sitting on a bench near a department store in Baton Rouge – approximately 78 miles (125 kilometers) from the jail he and nine others escaped from earlier this month, police said.
Authorities also said Monday that five people were arrested for assisting Vanburen following the audacious jail escape through a hole behind a toilet. Three of those people share the same last name as Vanburen, including Lenton Vanburen Sr. All five were charged with accessory after the fact — a crime that involves harboring, concealing or aiding a felon who is avoiding arrest, trial, conviction or punishment — which is punishable by up to five years in prison.
On Monday, two other escapees were arrested in Walker County, Texas. Details about their capture were not available.
Still on the lam are Derrick Groves and Antoine Massey.
Groves, 27, was convicted on two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder last year for his role in the 2018 Mardi Gras Day shootings of two men. He also faces a charge of battery against a correctional facility employee, court records show.
Massey, 33, has a lengthy criminal history. In March, he was booked on charges of motor vehicle theft and domestic abuse battery involving strangulation. He is also wanted by St. Tammany Parish authorities on suspicion of kidnapping and rape, law enforcement officials told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.
Authorities have urged the public to call police with any information that may lead to the capture of Groves and Massey, and are offering $20,000 in rewards for tips leading to their arrest.
The bold New Orleans jailbreak occurred nearly two weeks ago, when the inmates yanked open a faulty cell door inside a jail, squeezed through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed-wire fence and fled into the cover of darkness.
Authorities didn't learn of the escape until a morning headcount, hours after the 10 men bolted for freedom. Graffiti was left on the wall at the scene of the crime, a message that read 'To Easy LoL,' with an arrow pointing to the gap where the toilet once was.
City and state officials have pointed to multiple security lapses in the jail.
Conditions had been deteriorating in the jail in the months before the escape, with unsupervised inmates smoking marijuana 'without fear of consequences' and fashioning weapons out of brooms, mops and buckets, according to a new report released Tuesday by an independent watchdog monitoring a 2013 federal consent decree that was intended to reform the jail.
The monitor urged Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson to reestablish a high-security unit in the jail, noting the unrelenting violence among inmates that's made the facility 'not reasonably safe and secure.' Hutson, a progressive reformer, had abandoned the practice of housing certain inmates in a high-security setting after taking office in 2022.
'Many of the inmate-on-inmate assaults occur because staff allow inmates out of their cells and leave them unsupervised, or inmates are able to manipulate the locks on their cells to open them,' the monitors wrote in the report, which was written before this month's escape.
——-
Associated Press writer Jim Mustian in New York contributed to this report.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
36 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
A Syrian American man is among members of the Druze community killed in sectarian clashes in Syria
BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian-American man of the Druze religious minority was killed in southern Syria when he got caught up in sectarian clashes there last week while visiting family members, relatives and officials said Tuesday. The U.S. State Department confirmed the death of U.S citizen Hossam Soraya in the city of Sweida and extended its condolences to his family. His relatives and friends told The Associated Press that Saraya, in his mid-30s from Oklahoma, was killed in an attack last Wednesday.
Toronto Star
36 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Charges dropped against more than 120 defendants in Massachusetts because they can't get attorney
BOSTON (AP) — More than 120 cases, including some for assault on family members and police, were dismissed Tuesday in Boston, the latest fallout from a monthslong dispute over pay that has led public defenders to stop taking new clients. At a mostly empty courtroom, Boston Municipal Court Chief Justice Tracy-Lee Lyons invoked the Lavallee protocol in dismissing case after case. It requires cases be dropped if a defendant hasn't had an attorney for 45 days and released from custody if they haven't had one for seven days. Tuesday was the first time it was invoked to drop cases, while suspects in custody have been released in recent weeks.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Charges dropped against more than 120 defendants in Massachusetts because they can't get attorney
BOSTON (AP) — More than 120 cases, including some for assault on family members and police, were dismissed Tuesday in Boston, the latest fallout from a monthslong dispute over pay that has led public defenders to stop taking new clients. At a mostly empty courtroom, Boston Municipal Court Chief Justice Tracy-Lee Lyons invoked the Lavallee protocol in dismissing case after case. It requires cases be dropped if a defendant hasn't had an attorney for 45 days and released from custody if they haven't had one for seven days. Tuesday was the first time it was invoked to drop cases, while suspects in custody have been released in recent weeks. Most were for minor crimes like shoplifting, drug possession and motor vehicle violations. Boston Municipal Court Chief Justice Tracy -Lee Lyons during court proceedings to dismiss cases in which the defendant has been unrepresented for more than 45 days Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in Boston. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool) But several involved cases of assault on police officers and domestic violence. One suspect allegedly punched his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach and slapped her in the face. Another case involved a woman who was allegedly assaulted by the father of her child, who threatened to kill her and tried to strangle her. A third case involved a suspect who allegedly hit a police officer and threated to shoot him. The judge, repeatedly invoking the Lavallee protocol, dismissed almost all of the cases after being convinced public defenders had made a good-faith effort to find the defendants an attorney. No defendants were in court to hear their cases being dismissed. 'This case will be dismissed without prejudice,' Lyons said repeatedly, noting that all fines and fees would be waived. Frustration from prosecutors over dropped cases Prosecutors unsuccessfully objected to the dismissal of many of the cases, especially the most serious being dismissed. 'The case dismissals today, with many more expected in coming days and weeks, present a clear and continuing threat to public safety,' James Borghesani, a spokesperson for the Suffolk County district attorney's office, said in a statement. They vowed to re-prosecute all the cases. 'Our prosecutors and victim witness advocates are working extremely hard to keep victims and other impacted persons updated on what's happening with their cases,' he continued. 'These are difficult conversations. We remain hopeful that a structural solution will be found to address the causal issues here and prevent any repeat.' The district attorney's office plans to re-prosecute all of the dismissed cases. Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, speaking to reporters in Fall River, said the situation needed to be resolved. 'This is a public safety issue and also a due process issue as people need representation,' she said. 'I know the parties are talking. They have got to find a way to work this out. We need lawyers in court … and certainly they need to be paid fairly.' Dispute revolves around pay Public defenders, who argue they are the lowest paid in New England, launched a work stoppage at the end of May in hopes of pressuring the legislature to increase their hourly pay. The state agency representing public defenders had proposed a pay increase from $65 an hour to $73 an hour over the next two fiscal years for lawyers in district court, an increase from $85 an hour to $105 an hour for lawyers in Superior Court and $120 an hour to $150 an hour for lawyers handling murder cases. But the 2026 fiscal year budget of $60.9 billion signed early this month by Healey didn't include any increase. 'The dismissal of cases today under the Lavallee protocols is what needs to be done for those individuals charged with crimes but with no lawyer to vindicate their constitution rights,' said Shira Diner, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law and the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 'It is, however, not a solution to the deep crisis of inadequate pay for bar advocates. Until there are enough qualified lawyers in courts to fulfill the constitutional obligation of the right to counsel this crisis will only intensify.' The pay of public defenders is a national issue Massachusetts is the latest state struggling to adequately fund its public defender system. In Wisconsin, a two-year state budget signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would increase the pay of public defenders and district attorneys in each of the next two years. That comes after the Legislature in 2023 also increased the pay to address rising caseloads, high turnover and low salaries. Public defenders in Minnesota averted a walkout in 2022 that threatened to bring the court system to a standstill. A year later, the legislature came up with more funding for the state Board of Public Defense so it could meet what the American Bar Association recommends for manageable caseload standards. Oregon, meanwhile, has struggled for years with a critical shortage of court-provided attorneys for low-income defendants. As of Tuesday, nearly 3,500 defendants did not have a public defender, a dashboard from the Oregon Judicial Department showed. Of those, about 143 people were in custody, some for longer than seven days. Amid the state's public defense crisis, lawmakers last month approved over $2 million for defense attorneys to take more caseloads in the counties most affected by the shortage and over $3 million for Oregon law schools to train and supervise law students to take on misdemeanor cases.
