2025 New Orleans Jailbreak

On May 16, 2025, ten inmates of the Orleans Parish Prison, located in New Orleans, Louisiana, escaped through a hole in the wall behind a toilet. Six of the ten inmates were charged with murder or attempted murder, and nine inmates have since been recaptured as of June 27. Nine of the inmates are pre-trial.

Escape

At 12:23 a.m., inmates at the Orleans Parish Prison, who managed to escape their cells due to some faulty locks, began tampering with a locked sliding cell door for about 20 minutes before pulling it off its tracks and gaining entry into the cell. Once inside, the group ripped off a toilet and sink unit in the cell, and cut off horizontal bars from a hole behind the toilet that was used to connect pipes. By doing this, they were successfully able to escape. Above the hole where the inmates escaped from, the inmates scribbled graffiti and various obscene messages, among them "To Easy LoL" and "We Innocent." Authorities stated the guard assigned with watching their cell pod was away getting food at the time of the escape.

After squeezing through the hole, the group fled through a loading dock, scaled a wall, then ran across the Interstate 10 highway. By 1:30 a.m., the group was outside the jail. At 8:30 a.m., roughly seven hours after the escape, the inmates were discovered missing during a routine head count.

Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson noted that there was a chance that someone who worked at the jail had helped the men escape, saying “It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help". A jail employee who was monitoring surveillance had reportedly witnessed the escape but did not report it to deputies. Three employees at the jail have been suspended without pay while officials investigate.

Prison officials early on suspected the escapees had inside help to escape. On May 20, 2025, a jail maintenance worker was arrested and accused of turning off the water in certain cells in order to aid the escapees removing the toilet. Three additional jail employees were suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation. On May 21, 2025, two women were arrested for aiding the escapees and charged with being accessories after the fact. At least one of the women was in communication with an escapee prior to the escape. Late on May 22, 2025, another woman was arrested for being an accomplice. As of Friday, May 23, 2025, seven people had been arrested for aiding the escapees: 1 jail employee, 1 jail inmate, and 5 acquaintances. On the weekend of May 24–25, 2025, four people who were family or acquaintances of escapee Lenton Vanburen were arrested for assisting him.

Capture

Three of the men were captured on May 16, 2025, and were taken to the Louisiana State Penitentiary via helicopter. Price was captured on May 19, 2025, and Boyd was captured a day later. Vanburen was captured on May 26, 2025, in Baton Rouge. Tate and Donald were also captured on May 26 in Walker County, Texas.

Louisiana State Police said in a statement that one of the inmates, Kendall Myles, was found under a car at a hotel garage in the French Quarter. This was the fourth time Massey had escaped from a jail. He is also ineligible for ankle monitoring because he kept cutting them off. Massey was captured on June 27, 2025.

Escapees

The escapees' ages ranged from 19 to 43. Several have been charged with murder. Others were charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, false imprisonment with a weapon, armed robbery with a firearm, and domestic abuse.

The at-large escapee is:

The apprehended escapees are:

Accessories charged

Notes

References

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Prison escapes in North America
Crimes in New Orleans
2025 in Louisiana
Escapes in the United States
May 2025 crimes in the United States
Manhunts
Fugitives
2020s in New Orleans