NEW ORLEANS — Nearly two months after 10 inmates escaped from a New Orleans jail by crawling through a hole behind a toilet, authorities have recaptured all but the man with the most violent rap sheet: Derrick Groves.
Residents watch as law enforcement search for a fugitive who escaped a prison May 21 in New Orleans.
Following the May 16 jailbreak, law enforcement tracked down three escapees within 24 hours and most of the others within the next few weeks. While some of the fugitives roamed through nightlife hotspots and another made Instagram posts, Groves has so far kept a low profile.
The 28-year-old New Orleans native has the most at stake, authorities say. Last year, a jury convicted Groves of killing two people after he opened fire on a family block party with an assault rifle in what prosecutors said was a feud with rival drug dealers.
Groves faces life imprisonment without parole, but administrative delays have kept him in jail for years rather than a more secure prison facility.
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"He's got nothing to lose," said Forrest Ladd, an Orleans Parish assistant district attorney who prosecuted Groves. "That's a dangerous thing from anybody, much less somebody capable of causing mass harm."
More than 90% of people who escape from U.S. correctional facilities are recaptured within a year, said Bryce Peterson, adjunct professor of criminal justice at John Jay College. "The longer you are out there, the more likely you are to stay out," said Peterson, though he believes Groves will be caught eventually due to the high level of media attention.
FILE - This photo obtained May 16 shows an opening inside a cell at the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans.
Most escapes occur when low-level offenders seize spontaneous opportunities, Peterson said. The New Orleans jailbreak stands out because of its level of "sophistication and pre-planning" and the alleged roles current and former jail employees played in the escape, he added.
Multiple defense attorneys who have worked with Groves described him as intelligent and polite. Prosecutors in his cases say he is violent, manipulative and remorseless.
"He's the worst human being I've ever come across in my life," said Ladd, the Orleans Parish assistant district attorney. "But he is a very charismatic, and I think that allows him the ability to kind of control people."
A former jail employee who became Groves' girlfriend during his incarceration is accused of helping him coordinate the escape in advance by arranging phone calls that avoided the jail's monitoring system. She is one of at least 16 people — many family members of the escapees — facing charges for providing transport, food, shelter and cash to the fugitives, most of whom stayed in New Orleans.
Several days after the escape, authorities received information that Groves was hiding in the city's Lower Ninth Ward, the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged neighborhood where he grew up, according to court documents.
State and federal authorities declined to provide details on Groves' suspected whereabouts. Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Robert Hodges indicated he believes Groves is getting help from friends or family.
Derrick D. Groves is one of the inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail.Â
"Sometimes we think we are incredibly close," Hodges said during a June 27 news conference, adding that authorities would arrive at a location to find a fugitive "just moved because they have help."
There is a $50,000 reward for tips leading to Groves' recapture.
Likely impeding the search for Groves is widespread skepticism toward law enforcement from city residents following decades of abuse, often against the Black community. In 1994, a corrupt police officer ordered the killing of Groves' grandmother, Kim Groves, after she reported him for beating up a teenager. Her three children settled a federal civil rights lawsuit with the city for $1.5 million in 2018.
"For my family, it's been like reliving a constant nightmare," Groves' aunt, Jasmine Groves, told WDSU, saying the family has been interrogated and remains under law enforcement surveillance. She urged her nephew to turn himself in.
Groves' mother and aunt did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.
In 2014, at the age of 17, Groves was arrested and incarcerated for nearly two years on a charge of attempted second-degree murder for which he was later acquitted by a jury, though his own father testified against him, according to court records and a prosecutor in the case, Mike Trummel.
Tom Shlosman, Groves' defense attorney in that case, said Groves' prolonged incarceration as a teenager and his grandmother's murder likely undermined his faith in the criminal justice system. Shlosman remembered Groves as "young and scared."
"None of that's going to affect a kid in any positive way," Shlosman said. "And it's certainly not going to instill trust in law enforcement."
Groves, who goes by "Woo," dropped out of school in ninth grade and sold heroin in the Lower Ninth Ward for years, according to court records. The FBI began monitoring his social media while he was still a teenager, and Groves pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in 2019.
Groves has been in jail since at least 2019, after his involvement in four killings during an 18-month period.
In October 2024, a jury convicted Groves of second-degree murder for using an assault rifle to spray dozens of bullets into a family block party on Mardi Gras, killing 21-year-old Byron Jackson and 26-year-old Jamar Robinson and wounding several others.
Groves later pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in two separate shootings, according to the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office.
Eyewitnesses in cases involving Groves have been threatened and physically attacked by him, and others were so intimidated they refused to testify against him, according to three current and former prosecutors and court records.
In court, Robinson's aunt, Janis Robinson, said she had cried every night since her nephew died: "I don't know how we are going to get through it."
In response, records show, Groves swore repeatedly at her in court.
How Trump is trying to expand the already colossal U.S. prison system
How Trump is trying to expand the already colossal U.S. prison system
During his first month in office, President Donald Trump has made moves to expand the United States' already gargantuan carceral system. The Trump administration's goals, from mass deportation to harsher punishments for some crimes, are reliant on the federal government having access to more prison and jail cells. Without that carceral infrastructure, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to enact his promises on immigration and crime and punishment.
During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to deport a . And while Trump's focus so far has been on undocumented immigrants, his criminalization efforts extend to U.S. citizens too. Attorney General Pam Bondi has that could encourage federal prosecutors to seek harsher sentences in many circumstances.
Detaining and incarcerating more people necessitates more places to put them, and the administration is already hitting limits, reports. During the first week of February, space inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities reached .
This lack of space is one of the major barriers to ramping up deportations, and ICE is limited by its budget. But Trump is now considering tapping into defense funds. Those funds "would allow civilian-run companies to quickly and rapidly expand temporary detention facilities," such as tents, .
ICE has also begun . But the BOP was already in crisis before Trump took office, . The of staff to incarcerated people has to provide security and basic services to the people imprisoned in its facilities, putting their safety—and that of employees—at risk.
Private prison companies are celebrating the Trump administration's need for more cells. In a Feb. 10 and earnings call, CoreCivic's CEO told investors that this was one of the most exciting periods of his career, and it may lead to the ." The company, which has contracts to detain people for ICE, said they expect the immigration agency to .
Company officials believe they may also see growth in the Bureau of Prisons, . One of Trump's first actions as president was to , after then-President Joe Biden canceled BOP private prison contracts. (The use of private detention for immigration has continued under both Democratic and Republican administrations, with for much of the infrastructure .)
Yet another sign of a private prison infrastructure expansion is a report that the Trump administration is preparing to restart family immigrant detention, including incarcerating families with young children, and is expected to ask companies to bid for contracts, .
While much attention has been given to private companies, local jails are the most common type of detention facility that ICE uses, , an advocacy organization working to end mass incarceration. The Biden administration already had agreements with local jails to house ICE detainees. But Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has been encouraging sheriffs to make even more space available for immigrant detention. At the the first week of February, he told sheriffs: "We need your bed space."
Homan promised to make it easier for local jails to incarcerate people for ICE by lowering detention standards and limiting the number of federal inspections. He said he hoped to eliminate federal rules and instead defer to state-level standards. "If that's good enough for a U.S. citizen in your county, it's good enough for an illegal immigrant detained for us," Homan said.
Local officials are often incentivized to provide jail space to ICE because of reimbursement rates. Sheriffs and politicians have talked about how . Other sheriffs have said they will to do what the federal government is asking counties to do. Some local politicians are offering space because of ideological support for Trump's goals. An Arizona state senator said he plans to introduce a bill allowing ICE to use two empty state prisons for just a . And Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has offered Trump the use of .
Other state politicians have resisted cooperation with ICE. A law in Illinois prohibits local sheriffs from renting jail space for immigrant detention. Trump is now .
The president's search for more prison and jail cells for imprisoning both citizens and undocumented immigrants extends beyond U.S. borders.
In early February, Trump said he was considering El Salvador's offer to incarcerate both deported immigrants from any nationality and U.S. citizens in its infamous prisons. Trump said the Central American country offered to detain people for a "small fee." He also said, "." Experts , and while it is, in some cases, legal to deport a non-citizen to a third country, it's a complicated process.
Trump has also indicated that he wants to house more than in Cuba. The naval base has a long history of allegations of , and lawyers have that immigrants are being sent into a "," according to The Washington Post. Around three dozen people have already been sent to Guantánamo, but there are major hurdles to reaching the numbers Trump has projected. The most the facility has ever held is , according to NPR, and housing more would be incredibly expensive. In addition, the administration has already hit legal hurdles— a judge in New Mexico blocked, for now, the administration's effort to send three Venezuelan men to Guantánamo.
Many have speculated that Trump's sending people to Guantánamo, , is an attempt to intended to project power and instill fear.
But despite the significant legal and practical barriers, the Trump administration's numerous efforts to find more jail and prison cells indicate a clear desire to build a larger carceral system.
Trump has styled himself as a "law and order" president and is using that frame in his efforts at expanded incarceration. But despite his wide-ranging moves to increase prison and jail space, he has been selective in who should be imprisoned or punished for illegal behavior.
Trump himself has been convicted of numerous felonies. On the first day of his administration, he granted clemency to . And at the beginning of February, the Justice Department ordered prosecutors to against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was accused in September of . Multiple department employees have . A Justice Department memo, obtained by The Associated Press, said the charges should be dropped because they were interfering with Adams' ."
was produced by , a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
