According to the Louisiana State Police, Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald were arrested in Walker County.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Two more escapees from the Orleans Parish Jail are now in custody, captured here in Southeast Texas.
According to the Louisiana State Police, Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald were found in Walker County and arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety. They’re the seventh and eighth of the 10 escapees to be captured. Two more remain on the run.
According to a post from the Huntsville Police Department, the two were arrested off of Highway 190 and Geneva Road in Huntsville after leading officers on a high-speed chase. The chase ended at around 6:30 p.m. near U.S. 190 and Geneva.
According to Deputy Cameron Welch with the US Marshals Office, authorities had been working all day long on leads and tips that Tate and Donald were in the area, driving in a small SUV.
Welch said DPS noticed the vehicle and tried to initiate a traffic stop. That’s when a chase ensued, which resulted in a crash once the suspects lost control.
Donald was charged with outstanding warrants for Escape and Resisting an Officer. His original charges were Illegal Carrying a Weapon and Second-Degree Murder. Tate was charged with outstanding warrants for Aggravated Escape and Escape from Custody. He was in custody on the original charge of Obstruction of Justice.
Both are facing additional charges, being filed by DPS and will remain in custody, pending extradition back to Louisiana.
Tate and Donald were taken into custody by members of the U.S. Marshals-Gulf Coast Violent Offender and Fugitive Task Force out of Houston, with the assistance of Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Public Safety-Air Support, Walker County Sheriff Department, Huntsville Police Department and Montgomery County Sherrif Department.
News of the new captures comes just hours after a sixth escapee – Lenton Vanburen – was taken into custody in Baton Rouge.
How the escape happened
According to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, the inmates broke free around 12:23 a.m. on Friday, May 16. Using defective cell locks and a breached wall behind a toilet, they exited through a supply dock and scaled a perimeter wall before fleeing across the interstate.
A civilian monitor had reportedly stepped away for food at the time. Three security cameras in the unit were inoperable. A photo obtained by WWL Louisiana shows a hole in the wall with a mocking message written above it: “To (sic) easy lol.”
From there, the inmates made good on their escape by running out of a door at the loading dock and scaled a wall and fence. Then, the inmates crossed I-10 into a neighborhood.
Eight inmates recaptured
- Kendell Myles, 20
- Robert Moody, 21
- Dkenan Dennis, 24
- Gary C. Price, 21
- Corey Boyd, 19
- Lenton Vanburen, 26
- Leo Tate, 31
- Jermaine Donald, 42
Inmates still at large
- Antoine Massey, 32
- Derrick Groves, 27