CNN

Technology, teamwork and cash play key roles in massive manhunt for New Orleans prison escapees

By CNN Newsource

Published May 22, 2025 12:00 pm

By Rebekah Riess, Jason Morris, CNN

(CNN) — A team of over 200 local, state and federal law enforcement officers and agents is working around the clock to capture the remaining missing inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail in a stunning overnight escape last week, according to Louisiana State Police.

Investigators have declined to comment on the specifics of the manhunt or the believed whereabouts of the fugitives. “We don’t discuss any of the investigative tools we use, that would be like the Eagles showing their Super Bowl playbook before the game,” Deputy US Marshal Brian Fair told CNN.

But tips from the public and cash rewards offered by various agencies are key to the investigation, Fair said. As of early Thursday, five of the 10 who escaped were back in custody.

Here are some of the known techniques being used to aid in the manhunt:

Live facial recognition

So, far, all recaptured escapees have been found in New Orleans. A key tool at investigators’ disposal is Project NOLA, a high definition crime camera program headquartered on the campus of the University of New Orleans.

It was used to spot one of escapees in the French Quarter just minutes after the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office notified Louisiana State Police of the mass escape Friday and continues to play a major role in the manhunt.

A second escaped inmate was found only one block away from where Project NOLA facial recognition crime cameras lost him hours after the breakout, according to the organization.

What sets the nonprofit’s model apart is its cameras are positioned on private homes and businesses and can be outfitted with facial recognition, license plate reading and clothing recognition software.

In 2016, Project NOLA partnered with the University of New Orleans which now houses the group’s National Real-Time Crime Center where cameras are monitored and simulcast to the municipalities and police monitoring stations the project serves, according to Project NOLA’s executive director and founder, Bryan Lagarde.

Project NOLA itself only has a full-time staff of five, Lagarde said, but they do their best to monitor certain areas and events. Otherwise, the local municipalities can monitor as they deem necessary.

The organization maintains a “hot list” of mug shots and information on fugitives. As its cameras sweep an area, they are constantly comparing the passing faces to that list, Lagarde said.

Each one of their cameras, like the ones on Bourbon Street, can scan up to “300-something faces per second,” he said.

Tip line and financial rewards

Hundreds of messages have poured into the Crimestoppers of New Orleans tip line from the community, as the agency says it wants to encourage tipsters to make sure they add more detail to the information they share. So far, two suspects have been caught because of tips into Crimestoppers, the agency told CNN.

The reward for information leading to the recapture of the remaining inmates has been increased to a total amount of $20,000 for each fugitive, the Louisiana State Police announced Monday. The sum includes a $5,000 reward from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a $5,000 reward from Crimestoppers and a $10,000 reward from the FBI.

“You put a $20,000 bounty on each of their heads, people are going to call Crime Stoppers. People are going to call the hotline number. They’re going to report anonymously,” Marlon Defillo, a former assistant superintendent with the New Orleans Police Department, told CNN.

“They may not give their name, but they’ll certainly put the law enforcement in the right direction as to where they may be,” he said.

“There is $20,000 for each escapee, and that’s cash, folks, we don’t need your name. We just want your information,” Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said Tuesday.

Known associates, familiar places

While he would not elaborate on investigators’ work related to known associates of the escapees, Fair told CNN he “wouldn’t call it surprising” that five of them were caught in New Orleans area, given any resources they might have likely are in the city.

“They’re going to go back into the neighborhoods that they know best, their own neighborhoods where they grew up and where they were reared. They’re not familiar with anything or any other type of location or locale outside of the city of New Orleans, because they were born and raised here their entire lives.

“Without money, without food, without clothing, without resources. That’s going to make it very difficult for them to seek refuge anywhere outside of the city,” Defillo said.

“You’re just unlikely to go somewhere where you have zero support or help. And most of these, if not all of these individuals, grew up in New Orleans,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told FOX News on Wednesday. “They were young, young children, really, around the time of Hurricane Katrina, their resources are here.”

Hutson on Tuesday sent a message to those who may be harboring the fugitives, saying “It’s not too late to change course. If you will work with us, we will work with you.”

“You can change course. You can let us know, and we can help you,” she said. “But I will tell you, if they participate willfully and knowingly, they are going to be charged with serious felonies. They’re going to spend time,” the sheriff warned. “We just want your information, and so you have one of two choices. You can either choose prison because we are going to catch you and charge you, or you can cooperate. Even if you’re scared, we can help you.”

The breakout has left New Orleans on high alert – with members of the district attorney’s staff fleeing for their safety – and local and state officials investigating how an escape could have happened. The escapees face an array of charges including aggravated assault with a firearm, false imprisonment with a weapon and murder.

Where the manhunt stands

The five inmates who have been recaptured are being held at Louisiana State Penitentiary, a maximum-security facility.

The latest to be caught, Corey Boyd, 19, was arrested Tuesday, about five days after he and nine other men broke out of the Orleans Justice Center through a hole behind a metal toilet just after midnight Friday.

The captured inmates will be held without bond, Murrill said in a social media post Wednesday.

A maintenance worker with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, Sterling Williams, 33, was arrested Tuesday. Williams is accused of “willfully and maliciously” assisting with the jailbreak, according to an affidavit. He faces one count of malfeasance in office and 10 counts of being a principal to simple escape.

Williams’ attorney, Michael Kennedy, said the worker was turning off water to an overflowing toilet after being told to do so and the is “fully convinced” of his client’s innocence.

Two other people, Cortnie Harris, 32, and Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, were arrested on suspicion of assisting some of the inmates after they escaped, Louisiana State Police said in an update Wednesday.

Hutson, who oversees the jail, announced Tuesday she is suspending her reelection campaign, just hours after fielding tough questions from local leaders at a tense city council meeting.