Dec. 23 (UPI) — Florida law enforcement on Tuesday captured three DeKalb County, Ga., Jail inmates a day after they escaped custody from the facility that serves Atlanta and DeKalb and Fulton Counties.
The captured inmates were Stevenson Charles, 24; Usef Minor, 31; and Naod Yohannes, 25.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Charles scheduled a rideshare service to pick up the three escapees from the jail and take them to the home of Minor’s girlfriend.
That woman was identified as Gabriel Ortis, and she then scheduled a rideshare to take them to the greater Miami area, according to the Marshals Service.
The Marshals Service confirmed they had left the state in a Lyft and tracked that vehicle’s progress before capturing them in Florida’s Broward County, WSB-TV reported.
DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox announced the escapees’ capture during a Tuesday morning news conference, during which she said the Sheriff Department’s Fugitive and Field Operations service and other agencies assisted in their capture.
The DeKalb County Jail is secure, Maddox said, and she called the three inmates’ escape a “breach.”
She said that instead of pointing fingers and blaming others, “We’re going to focus on how to stop this from happening in the future.”
Maddox did not offer information on how the three men escaped from the jail, which is undergoing renovations.
“We’re not going to put any information out there unless it’s valid and it has been verified, to make sure the citizens of DeKalb County are getting valid information that they’re supposed to have,” Maddox told media.
The inmates escaped about 4 hours before jail staff noticed they were missing.
DeKalb officials said jail staff would conduct more frequent inspections.
Minor in 2022 was convicted of the murder of Ja’Leesa May-Carter, 33, whom Minor did not know but killed because he thought she took a $100 bill that he left behind at a local gas station. He is serving a life sentence.
Charles is accused of the 2022 murder of Carl Steinke and in a separate case was convicted in 2024 of false imprisonment, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy after allegedly robbing a Lawrenceville couple and sexually assaulting one of them after arranging their meeting on a dating app. He is serving a life sentence for that crime.
Yohannes allegedly started a fire at the Highland Village Apartments near Interstate 285 in July 2024.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.