A Girlfriend of one of the 2 New Orleans inmates still on the run is now among over a dozen arrested. Authorities say she helped facilitate escape plans.
Darriana Burton was taken into custody without incident in New Orleans and is facing a felony charge of conspiracy to commit simple escape related to her alleged involvement in facilitating Derrick Groves' escape last month, the state's attorney general said in a statement.
'Burton is believed to be the current girlfriend of Derrick Groves. We have confirmed they were in an on-again, off-again relationship for three years,' Liz Murrill said.
Burton worked for the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office from August 2022 to March 2023, according to Murrill.
She does not have a defense attorney listed yet, according Orleans Parish Magistrate Court records, and joins more than a dozen other people already charged with helping the 10 escapees, both before and after they broke out.
Special agents with the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation discovered there was 'probable cause' that Burton 'knowingly and willfully' helped plan the escape, which saw inmates removing a sink-toilet combination unit from a cell, use a tool to saw through steel bars behind the fixture, and leave the Orleans Parish Correctional Center after midnight on May 16.
During their review, investigators discovered Burton had exchanged text messages and video calls with Groves in the days leading up to the escape.
'As part of the investigation, agents reviewed inmate communications transmitted through SmartCom, an internet-based messaging and video call system utilized by inmates via facility-issued iPADs,' the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit for Burton.
'This conversation remained intentionally vague,' the affidavit said, and appeared to coordinate communication on unmonitored lines to plan the escape.
'It was implied that Burton would initiate a separate, unmonitored phone call' immediately after the SmartCom session ended, according to the affidavit, which alleged that her actions demonstrated 'intentional and active involvement in the planning phase of the escape.'
Eight of the escapees have been caught – most of them in New Orleans. Only Groves, 27, convicted last October of killing two people, and Antoine Massey, 32, who has a history of escaping custody, have continued to evade law enforcement.
There is now a $50,000 reward for information that leads to either of their arrests, as multiple law enforcement agencies are asking the public to remain vigilant and continue to be on the lookout for the two men. Tips from the public continue to trickle in, the US Marshals Service says.
'The joint investigation between multiple law enforcement agencies continues and we continue to follow up on Crimestoppers GNO tips and develop new leads,' Deputy US Marshal Brian Fair told CNN.
'To those that would aid or hide Groves and or Massey, you are doing a disservice to the community and you may have your own day in court with felony charges in the near future,' Fair said.
Last week, law enforcement agencies searched the home where they believe Massey may have recorded a video proclaiming his innocence and asking rapper Lil Wayne and President Donald Trump for help, but since then, the manhunt has gone quiet.
'We will continue to pursue anyone and everyone who has aided and abetted these criminals. We will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you to the full extent of the law,' Murrill said in the statement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Connor Stalions' attorney invokes O.J. Simpson while blasting NCAA after he's hit with 8-year show-cause
Connor Stalions' legal team predictably has some complaints about the NCAA's sanctions against him and the Michigan football program. A day after the NCAA announced it was fining the Wolverines an eight-figure sum and hitting Stalions with an eight-year show-cause penalty, Stalions' attorney Brad Beckworth released a 779-word statement blasting the organization for a "vendetta" against his client: He also had plenty of praise for Stalions as a person, adding that Stalions still plans to be involved in football despite the show-cause: "We are not surprised by the NCAA's ruling because the NCAA did, as it has always done, the wrong thing. Based on the penalties laid down today, it is obvious that this whole ordeal was just another, last-ditch effort by the NCAA in its perpetual, petty witch hunt of Coach Harbaugh. Connor was just the vehicle through which the NCAA could give itself the last word in this vendetta. "Connor will be fine. He is a wonderful person. He's smart. He's loyal, dedicated, and determined—traits he carries with him onto the football field from his days serving his country to protect all of us. He loves helping young people learn about life and football. And, regardless of what the NCAA says today, he plans to continue learning about and contributing to the game of football at is highest levels." A show-cause penalty is a requirement that any school who tries to hire the coach in question must justify it to the NCAA. It often acts as a de facto ban from college athletics in the more serious and public cases. Stalions was the central figure in the scandal that nearly consumed Michigan's 2023 championship season. The beats of the story — in which Stalions was alleged to have illegally stolen signs from teams with the knowledge of the Michigan coaching staff — are well known, but Beckworth insisted that the NCAA's handling of the matter compromised its integrity, pointing to the Netflix documentary "Sign Stealer" as the true story: "Connor already won. We knew he was going to be railroaded the moment the NCAA first leaked this story in violation of its own rules. The NCAA decided it would target and punish him in 2023. So, rather than let them ruin his career in silence, he decided to expose the NCAA for the fraud it is in documentary Sign Stealer. Rather than let the NCAA continue to hide in secret, we decided to let the public see the truth for itself. And what the public saw revealed what we already knew to be true: this was a rigged investigation; enveloped in impropriety (namely, a "confidential source" that the NCAA still won't reveal); and all premised on an antiquated rule that the member institutions themselves have tried to eliminate as something that "no longer serve[s] the needs of the membership and the 21st century student-athlete." "The enforcement staff and the NCAA made it very clear that their feelings were hurt when they were exposed on Sign Stealer. But, through that process, the entire country saw the NCAA's investigation for what it was—a sham. The only way to deal with a bully and hypocrite is to expose them to the public and make sure everyone knows exactly what they are trying to do behind closed doors. We did that. We will continue to fight the NCAA anywhere and everywhere we can." He insisted multiple times the case against Stalions would not have passed muster in an actual court room, then took one of the biggest swings possible by pointing to the O.J. Simpson case: "The NCAA claims to be about protecting amateurism in college sports. It does not. The halls of the NCAA headquarters are lined with millions-of-dollars' worth of art paid for on the backs of superstars like Johnny Manziel, Reggie Bush, and the thousands of student athletes who worked for free while the NCAA and its member institutions profited billions. Let's not forget that while the NCAA went after Reggie Bush after he left USC, and took his Heisman away, it let USC continue to proudly display O.J. Simpson's Heisman in Heritage Hall." Stalions was one of four coaches individually sanctioned in the Michigan coach. The others were current head coach Sherrone Moore (hit with an additional one-game suspension and a two-year show-cause), former head coach Jim Harbaugh (10-year show-cause) and former assistant Denard Robinson (three-year show-cause). Stalions' former supervisor Charlie Partridge, who was later fired in relation to the scandal, was cleared in the investigation. Michigan quickly announced it would appeal the ruling. Meanwhile, Beckworth said Stalions is "glad that this process is now behind him," indicating there will be no further action from their side.
CBS News
15 minutes ago
- CBS News
Boston Police searching for suspect that stabbed man after argument at Stop & Shop in Dorchester
Boston Police are searching for a suspect after a man was stabbed multiple times following an argument at a Stop & Shop in Dorchester on Saturday. Officers were called to the grocery store on Blue Hill Avenue just before 12:15 p.m. When they arrived, they found a man in his fifties who had been stabbed multiple times. They said that the stabbing happened outside the store. "Preliminary information indicates that this incident stemmed from a verbal altercation between the suspect and the victim on store property," a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department said. The victim was taken to a nearby Boston hospital, where he is in stable condition. "At this time, no arrests have been made, and there is no information to suggest any ongoing danger to the public," the spokesperson said. It is not known what led to the argument and whether or not the stabbing happened inside the store or in the parking lot. Dorchester is a neighborhood of Boston. Stop & Shop is a popular grocery store that serves New England, parts of New York, and New Jersey.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bates Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Halt Execution
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Scrambling to try to prevent his scheduled execution next week, attorneys for Kayle Bates on Thursday appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Florida Supreme Court rejected their arguments. Attorneys also filed an appeal Thursday on separate issues at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bates, 67, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday in the 1982 murder of Janet Renee White, who was abducted from a State Farm insurance office where she worked in Bay County. The Florida Supreme Court this week rejected a series of arguments, including that evidence of 'organic brain damage' was not adequately considered before Bates received the death penalty during a 1995 resentencing proceeding. Also, Bates' attorneys argued jurors were misled to believe Bates could be released on parole in 12 years if he was not sentenced to death. The appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court, which was accompanied by a motion for a stay of execution, focused on the issues about brain damage and the jury allegedly being misled. 'There can be nothing more arbitrary or capricious than receiving a death sentence because the jury mistakenly thought itself required to choose between 12 years more imprisonment and death,' Bates' attorneys wrote. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
