DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. \u2014 Three DeKalb County Jail inmates that escaped on Sunday night have all been captured near Miami, Florida after taking a Lyft together.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cbreach\u201d in the jail\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n
U.S. Marshal Thomas Brown stated that Charles called someone to pick the three up from outside the jail and take them to Minor\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s 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 \u201cvery traumatized\u201d by the experience, according to Brown.<\/p>\n
The initial phone call Charles made had been recorded and later helped investigators locate the trio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 \u201ccompromised.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just can’t go out there and start sounding the alarm without figuring out what you have,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 intelligence use, \u201cwe have ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe operate a 30+ year old facility\u2026 some of the infrastructure can be compromised with the effort by the inmates,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maddox further stressed that the aging facility is \u201cdeteriorating right before our eyes\u201d and stressed that improvements are needed.<\/p>\n
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The DeKalb County Jail is located on Memorial Drive in Greater Decatur.<\/p>\n
DEAN HESSE\/DECATURISH<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a breach. We\u2019re not going to sit here and go back and forth and point blame. We\u2019re going to focus on what we can do to stop it from happening in the future,\u201d Maddox said. \u201cWe’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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maddox concluded the news conference by further stating that she is proud of the work the DeKalb County sheriffs have done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are asking me to make bricks out of straws, and we’re doing the best we can with what we have,\u201d Maddox said.<\/p>\n
The DeKalb County Commission approved $4.5 million for repairs at the county jail<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n During the Finance, Audit and Budget committee meeting on Nov. 10, Chief Operating Officer Zach Williams said he\u2019s had multiple conversations with Sheriff Melody Maddox since June about needed repairs at the jail.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have done is we have gone through the various requests and determined that these items\u2026are the most critical and represent a down payment into a capital strategy and a capital plan to address various issues at the jail,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a breakdown of the costs and vendors:<\/p>\n $900,000 to NBC to repair the roof in three areas.<\/p>\n $1.5 million to KONE to repair the elevators and bring them up to state code.<\/p>\n $1.5 million to Cornerstone to replace the jail locks.<\/p>\n $1.7 million to TKC to replace 1,534 toilets and replace 197 cell light fixtures.<\/p>\n $375,000 to Kissberg\/Parker-Fry to remove and repair wood in the mental health and intake areas, and add temporary walls and cleaning.<\/p>\n Assistant Editor Zoe Seiler contributed to this article.<\/p>\n \n Want Decaturish delivered to your inbox every day?
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