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Three inmates who escaped from a prison east of Atlanta, including one being held on murder charges, used a prison phone to call friends outside who visited them and used the prison phone. lift ride them out Georgiaofficials said on Tuesday.
The inmate captured in South Florida was able to “compromise” a part of a cell inside the DeKalb County Jail to escape, said DeKalb County Chief Deputy Tematrice Atkins. He did not provide further details because jailers do not want other inmates to know about the facility’s vulnerabilities.
“We repaired the area that was compromised, and we’re also looking at other areas that are similar to it to make sure they haven’t been compromised in the same way,” Atkins said at a news conference Tuesday.
DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox described the jail as “an aging facility that is deteriorating right before our eyes.” the prison is inside decaturAbout 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of downtown Atlanta.
Officials said the escape was discovered during a routine security check early Monday. All three inmates were captured in Florida, said Eric Heinz, assistant chief inspector for the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
When the jailer realized the three were gone, investigators listened to a recording of their conversation on recorded phone lines. US Marshal Thomas Brown said he learned that one of the prisoners had contacted people outside who had helped capture them after they escaped.
Brown said the inmates were picked up by an unknown person and taken to the home of one of his girlfriends. Then, a Lyft ride was arranged to take them to an address in Florida, he said.
“As you can imagine, the Lyft driver is very traumatized by this,” Brown said.
The inmates range in age from 24 to 31, with the youngest inmate charged with murder and armed robbery. The other two inmates face charges including armed robbery and arson.
The Sheriff’s Office warned that the men may be armed and would be considered dangerous after they fled.
Stevenson Charles, 24, an inmate accused of murder and armed robbery, has had several run-ins with law authorities in Georgia and Florida. He was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of kidnapping and bank robbery, a federal agent wrote in an affidavit Monday in connection with a recent prison escape.
After sentencing, the agent wrote, Charles was turned over to DeKalb County authorities on Dec. 5 to face a murder charge, details of which were not immediately available. A federal criminal complaint charging him with fleeing does not list an attorney who could be reached for comment on his behalf, and it was not clear whether he had one at this early stage of the case.
In one of several cases involving Charles in South Florida, he is accused of meeting a man Grinder online dating app and pointing a gun at her when they met in person miami Residence in 2022. Court records show Charles drove the man to various banks in the Miami area to withdraw money from the victims’ accounts.