(Reuters) – Police in Louisiana and Texas arrested on Monday three more fugitives who escaped from a New Orleans jail 10 days ago, leaving at large two of the original 10, Louisiana state police said.
Lenton Vanburen, 26, originally detained on a parole violation and firearms charges, was arrested by police in Baton Rouge, about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of New Orleans, Attorney General Liz Murrill said on X.
Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald were arrested in Walker County, Texas, by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Louisiana State Police said on X.
That leaves two escapees at large, as five other suspects had previously been recaptured, two of them shortly after the jailbreak. One of those was an escapee found hiding beneath a car in a hotel garage in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter.
Five other people have been arrested on suspicion of aiding the escape. They include a maintenance worker at the jail who admitted that he had turned off the water supply to a cell at the request of one inmate, who then tore a sink and toilet from the wall and fled through the hole, officials said.
Other alleged conspirators were accused of providing transportation or money or being accessories after the fact, state police said.
The escapees broke out in the early morning hours by pulling a sliding cell door off its tracks then breaching a wall by ripping away the toilet and sink, officials said. Security video captured them fleeing through a loading dock, scaling a wall and running across a nearby highway.
The Orleans Parish Justice Center, which mostly holds people awaiting trial or sentencing, discovered the inmates aged 19 to 42 were gone during a routine head count later on the morning of the escape.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Michael Perry)
