How Did Derrick Groves Escape Prison? Inside the Mass Jailbreak and How He Evaded Police for 5 Months By Emily Blackwood

It took police five months to capture the last of a group of inmates who escaped a New Orleans prison.

On Oct. 8, U.S. Marshals announced that they found Derrick Groves hiding out in an Atlanta residence, per CNN. The convicted murderer broke out of the Orleans Parish Justice Center with nine other inmates in May 2025.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Fair told CNN that a tip called into Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans led investigators to Groves’ location and that it took “almost three hours” and multiple rounds of gas to find him within the house. He was eventually found hiding in a crawl space.

Groves, who was convicted of shooting and killing two men during a Mardi Gras gathering in 2018, was awaiting sentencing at the time of his escape.

“This was a very dangerous individual,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said during a news conference following the arrest. “He is going to face jail time for a very, very long time.” 

So, how did Derrick Groves escape prison? Here’s everything to know about the mass New Orleans jailbreak and why police believe it was an inside job.

Who is Derrick Groves? 

Groves is a convicted murderer who was awaiting sentencing at the time of the May 2025 prison break. In 2019, he was convicted in the shooting deaths of Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson, who were gunned down during a Mardi Gras family gathering in February 2018, per CNN and the New Orleans district attorney’s office.

However, when a law was passed requiring unanimous jury verdicts for felony cases, Groves was granted a retrial in January 2023. It ended in a mistrial, but after another June 2023 trial, he was ultimately found guilty of two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder in October 2024.

“The days of Derrick Groves bullying and brutalizing this community are over,” FBI special agent in charge Lyonel Myrthil told reporters after the verdict. “Groves routinely used violence to lash out and silence witnesses or ‘snitches.’ There was no doubt in the minds of anyone involved in this case that Groves would continue his bloody rampage on the streets of New Orleans if he weren’t stopped.”

Groves was sentenced to life in prison for the 2018 murders and was awaiting sentencing on the two counts of attempted murder at the time of his escape, per NPR.

How many inmates did Derrick Groves escape with?

Groves escaped with nine other inmates: Kendell Myles, Robert Moody, Dkenan Dennis, Gary Price, Corey Boyd, Lenton VanBuren, Leo Tate, Jermaine Donald and Antoine Massey. According to WDSU, their charges ranged from carjacking and drug possession to kidnapping and attempted murder.

After the escape, Massey — who was charged with kidnapping and rape, according to the Associated Press — alleged in a viral video that he was innocent.

“They say that I broke out,” he said in the since-deleted clip, per The Times-Picayune. “I didn’t break out. I was let out. The reason why I left the jail is because these people were trying to give me a life sentence in both parishes for something that I did not do.”

CNN reported that Massey also asked Lil Wayne and President Donald Trump for help.

How did Derrick Groves escape prison? 

During evening lockdown on May 16, a group of 10 inmates started tampering with a cell door while a corrections monitoring technician stepped away to eat, per CNN. They eventually broke it up and were able to slip into a handicap cell.

There, they used electric hair trimmers with multiple clipper blades to cut through a wall behind the cell’s toilet. They escaped through the hole, leaving behind a message on the wall that read: “To Easy LOL.”

A maintenance worker named Sterling Williams later admitted to police that he helped the inmates escape by shutting off the water supply to the cell, according to USA Today. Upon his arrest, he alleged that they had threatened his life with a shank.

CNN reported that, in addition to Williams, 12 other people were arrested for their role in the prison break.

How did police find Derrick Groves?

Police captured Myles, Moody and Dennis on the day of the escape, according to WDSU. Price, Boyd, VanBuren, Tate and Donald were found by the end of the month, and Massey was discovered in late June 2025.

Groves was on the run the longest, evading police for five months until a CrimeStoppers tip led them to a home in Atlanta, per CNN. After a three-hour standoff, which included multiple rounds of gas, a K-9 located the convicted murderer hiding in a crawl space, NPR reported.

Police said no one else was in the residence at the time of Groves’ apprehension.

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A month before Groves’ capture, authorities arrested his girlfriend, Darriana Burton, for aiding in his escape. The attorney general’s office reported that Burton was a former correctional center employee until she was fired for bringing contraband into the jail.

Where is Derrick Groves now?

After his capture on Oct. 8, Groves was charged with simple escape, like the nine other inmates he broke out of prison with, per NPR. Authorities said they were also considering upgrading his charges to aggravated escape because of the drugs and weapons they found in the Atlanta home.

CBS reported that Groves waived his right to an extradition hearing the day after his capture, which means he would like to return to Louisiana. At his hearing, he told the judge, “I want to return where I’m from.”

“He’s got a lot of trouble and a lot of things to answer to, to both the state of Louisiana and the state of Georgia,” Murrill told NPR. “It’s a very unsettling thing to have somebody out like this … so today is a very good day.”

The nine other inmates pleaded not guilty to their escape charges in July 2025, per PBS.