Fourth New Orleans jailbreak suspect caught as manhunt enters day five
Early Friday, 10 men in custody at the Orleans Justice Center (OJC) – many awaiting trials or sentencing for violent charges, including murder – yanked open a cell door, slipped through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed wire fence, scampered across a highway and fled into the dark.
Kendell Myles, 20; Robert Moody, 21; and Dkenan Dennis, 24, were all caught still within New Orleans hours later. Authorities did not arrest any additional escapers over the weekend before taking Gary Price, 21, into custody late Monday.
The public official in charge of the jail, Orleans parish sheriff Susan Hutson, has since said faulty locks and cell doors, along with well-documented staffing shortages at the jail, were among the key factors in the breakout. As the Associated Press has reported, just 10 days before the escape, Hutson's office asked for money to fix the locks and cell doors in question.
But other officials say Hutson – who oversees the control and custody of those detained at the OJC – is responsible for the security lapses which led to Friday's breakout at the jail, which for years has been subject to federal monitoring and a consent decree aimed at improving conditions there.
Notably, there are reportedly indications that those who escaped may have had help from inside Hutson's ranks. There are also indications that someone with access to power tools made the hole used for the escape; that there was a lack of monitoring of the cell pod where the escapers had been contained; and that law enforcement took seven hours before a routine headcount revealed to them that anyone had fled from the OJC.
Louisiana state representative Aimee Adatto Freeman, who represents much of New Orleans's uptown section, called on Hutson to resign amid multiple investigations into Friday's escape, saying: 'Rather than take accountability, she's pointed fingers elsewhere. Blaming funding is a deflection – not an excuse.'
Hutson is facing re-election in October. Three challengers hoping to unseat Hutson have said Friday's escape should be disqualifying for her, according to the local news station WVUE.
The AP contributed reporting
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