A woman accused of helping escaped New Orleans inmate Derrick Groves was arrested Monday amid the ongoing search for him and fellow escapee Antoine Massey.
Darriana Burton, Groves’ girlfriend, is accused of aiding in his escape, the Louisiana Office of the Attorney General said in a news release.
Burton allegedly exchanged text messages and video calls with Groves while he was still in jail. In one call, Groves intentionally kept the conversation vague because he knew it was being recorded and implied that he would set up a follow-up call that wouldn’t be monitored, according to Burton’s affidavit for an arrest warrant.
The follow-up call was intended to discuss the escape, including transportation and the potential timing, it says.
Burton, 28, was arrested without incident. She faces a felony charge of conspiracy to commit simple escape. It’s not clear if Burton has obtained an attorney.
“We will continue to pursue anyone and everyone who has aided and abetted these criminals,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. “We will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you to the full extent of the law. I’d like to thank the US Marshals Service for executing our warrant for this woman.”
Burton worked for the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office up until her termination in March 2023 after she was arrested and accused of bringing contraband into the jail. The charges related to that incident were refused last year by the district attorney’s office, according to the Louisiana Office of the Attorney General.
Groves was one of 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16. They are accused of yanking open a faulty cell door, removing a toilet from the wall, crawling through a hole, leaping off the loading dock and scaling a barbed-wire fence before fleeing in different directions.
Groves and Massey remain on the run. In May, authorities upped the reward for their capture to $50,000 each.
More than a dozen people have been arrested and accused of aiding in the escape. One of those arrested was jail maintenance worker, Sterling Williams, who was accused of cutting the water off so inmates could remove the toilet from the wall. An affidavit for an arrest warrant said Williams told authorities that Massey threatened to shank him if he did not help.
A lawyer for Williams said the affidavit is a “mischaracterization” and that his client turned the water off because the toilet in an unused handicapped cell was clogged, not because he was aiding in the escape.
Murrill said Monday that authorities will continue to go after people who helped with the escape.
“We will arrest all aiders and abettors, and we will eventually get Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves back to prison where they belong,” she said.