DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Three DeKalb County Jail inmates that escaped on Sunday night have all been captured near Miami, Florida after taking a Lyft together.
At a news conference on Dec. 23, DeKalb Sheriff Melody Maddox announced the capture of inmates Stevenson Charles, 24, Yusuf Minor, 31, and Naod Yohannes, 25, following a “breach” in the jail’s infrastructure.
U.S. Marshal Thomas Brown stated that Charles called someone to pick the three up from outside the jail and take them to Minor’s girlfriend’s house. A woman, Gabriela Ortis, then ordered a Lyft ride to take them to Florida. The Lyft driver spoke with the investigators and had been “very traumatized” by the experience, according to Brown.
The initial phone call Charles made had been recorded and later helped investigators locate the trio.
An office discovered the inmates had escaped when he performed a cell check during feeding time. The officer noticed that a portion of the cell had been “compromised.” The police had alerted the public around four hours after the escape, according to DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Temetris Atkins, because they wanted to understand the situation.
“You just can’t go out there and start sounding the alarm without figuring out what you have,” Atkins said.
Two separate task forces were made with the U.S. Marshals Service seeking Charles, a federal inmate holding a felony life sentence for murder and armed robbery, and the Southeast Regional task force took over the search for the other two state inmates.
Brown did not offer any specifics for how the U.S. Marshals Service tracked them down to Florida, but said that through the U.S. Marshals’ intelligence use, “we have ways.”
Minor was in jail for two counts of armed robbery and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Yohannes was in jail with charges of simple assault, arson and unlawful acts of violence in a penal institution.
Atkins said the compromised area has been fixed and that they are currently looking to fix other areas that could be compromised in the same way to further prevent escapes.
“We operate a 30+ year old facility… some of the infrastructure can be compromised with the effort by the inmates,” Atkins said. “That being the case in this instance, we would not like to be more specific as not to give out [further] ideas of how to further compromise this building, but we’re making some adjustments.”
Maddox further stressed that the aging facility is “deteriorating right before our eyes” and stressed that improvements are needed.
The DeKalb County Jail is located on Memorial Drive in Greater Decatur.
DEAN HESSE/DECATURISH
“This was a breach. We’re not going to sit here and go back and forth and point blame. We’re going to focus on what we can do to stop it from happening in the future,” Maddox said. “We’re going to look at improvements that are needed here. You know that it’s going to cost money. We know what it costs, but we either pay now or it’s going to be a pain later.”
Maddox concluded the news conference by further stating that she is proud of the work the DeKalb County sheriffs have done.
“They are asking me to make bricks out of straws, and we’re doing the best we can with what we have,” Maddox said.
The DeKalb County Commission approved $4.5 million for repairs at the county jail in November.
During the Finance, Audit and Budget committee meeting on Nov. 10, Chief Operating Officer Zach Williams said he’s had multiple conversations with Sheriff Melody Maddox since June about needed repairs at the jail.
“What we have done is we have gone through the various requests and determined that these items…are the most critical and represent a down payment into a capital strategy and a capital plan to address various issues at the jail,” Williams said.
Here’s a breakdown of the costs and vendors:
$900,000 to NBC to repair the roof in three areas.
$1.5 million to KONE to repair the elevators and bring them up to state code.
$1.5 million to Cornerstone to replace the jail locks.
$1.7 million to TKC to replace 1,534 toilets and replace 197 cell light fixtures.
$375,000 to Kissberg/Parker-Fry to remove and repair wood in the mental health and intake areas, and add temporary walls and cleaning.
Assistant Editor Zoe Seiler contributed to this article.
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