It's Been Over a Month and New Orleans Prison Escapees, Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves, Are Still on The Run
Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves had the whole country looking for them. Offshore betting sites were giving odds on when they would be captured. Their fellow prison escapees were dropping like flies. The city of New Orleans arrested every friend and family member who so much as fielded a phone call from any of the 10 fugitives. There were 23 total arrests made within 12 days of the Orleans Parish Justice Center jailbreak. But 35 days later, Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves are still at large. The national media attention is virtually gone. I've wrote multiple blogs about these guys, and if I passed Derrick Groves on the street right now, or found myself across from him in a cypher, I don't even think my mind would register who he is anymore.
Unfortunately for Antoine Massey, I can't quite say the same about him. That face is going to take little longer to forget.
That's why you don't tattoo your face kids. If you escape prison and become the subject of a nationwide manhunt when you grow up, you're going to wish you looked a little more professional.
Face tattoos be damned, Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves survived the first wave of the nationwide manhunt. That's the hardest part. I think. I'm struggling to find any good hard data on prison escapees in America. But soon after the escape happened, I read an article on USA Today where a criminal justice professor said:
USA Today – "Well over 90% of inmates who escape will be recaptured," Peterson, also a senior research scientist at the CNA Center for Justice Research and Innovation, said on May 19. "And with some of New Orleans inmates facing long sentences, the national media attention and federal, state and local authorities all working together, I'd put that figure much closer to 100%."
I know he goes on to say that with national media attention the figure should be closer to 100%. But when I first read "well over 90%", that didn't sound very reassuring. I was always under the impression that when you escaped prison, the only possible outcomes were:
1. Apprehended and returned to prison
2. Found dead
3. Killed in shootout/high speed chase with cops
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And if anybody did manage to escape for good, they'd have a movie made about them.
I can't find the exact statistic on what percentage of escapees are returned to prison. There is an article on the U.S. Department of Justice's official website from 1986 that says "more than 80 percent of reported escapees were returned to prison". Obviously with the technology we have today, that number is much higher now. But using context clues from that "well over 90%" quote in USA Today, I think it's safe to say the number today is still under 95%. Again, I know this is a high-profile case, but it's already crazy to me that Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves have managed to remain on the run for as long as the have. So if 10 prisoners escaped, and roughly 95% percent of prison escapees are returned to justice… my money is still on the two of them being caught, but those numbers kind of make me think at least one of these guys might have a puncher's chance.
If I were a betting man, I'd have my money on Derrick Groves. Antoine Massey and his face tattoos have been defying the odds since the beginning, so maybe I should stop doubting him, but. the way Antoine has been acting since his escape… I gotta think his actions are going to catch up to him eventually. I mean… the man posted a video of himself to Instagram after all.
I'd have thought staying off social media was the first rule to being a fugitive of the law. But what the hell would I know? I'm not the expert. Antoine Massey has been through this THREE TIMES before.
WWLTV – In 2007, WWL Louisiana covered the story of six juveniles who escaped from the Youth Study Center, the facility that later became the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center. Among those escapees: Antoine Massey.
In 2019, Massey escaped from Morehouse Detention Center, just outside of Monroe. He was caught the same day, but in Texas.
And in 2023, Massey evaded law enforcement once again — this time by cutting off an ankle monitor just hours after being placed on it.
Surely he's learned how not to get caught by now. I actually don't hate the move of posting a video professing your innocence. You never know when you might catch a shady, fame hungry lawyer looking to take a high-profile case pro bono. That would at least give him a better chance than a public defender.
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For the record, there's an active Instagram account that people actually seem to believe is run by Antoine Massey, but there is simply 0% chance that's true.
The account handle is different than the handle he used to post his proclamation of innocence. Every picture and video posted on that account is old. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time believing Antoine is actually running an active Instagram account.
Derrick Groves however is a wildcard in his own right. He's allegedly the most violent of all 10 of the escapees. He's a convicted double murderer. He's been the subject of multiple violent incidents inside of prisons. Of all the fugitives liable to go out in a blaze of glory, from what I gather, Derrick Groves is the #1 candidate.
But the most interesting thing about Derrick Groves dates back to his grandmother Kim Groves. In 1994, before Derrick was born, Kim Groves witnessed a cop named Len Davis beat the shit out an innocent young man who he had mistaken for a suspect in a police officer shooting. Kim Groves reported Len Davis for the incident. One day after she filed the complaint, Len Davis hired a local drug dealer to shoot Kim Groves dead in the street. It was front page news in New Orleans.
The Groves family has been through some shit. Maybe the Groves long and tumultuous history with law enforcement will culminate with Kim Groves grandson Derrick Groves escaping prison and living the rest of his life in the wind. Wouldn't that be poetic.
Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves. The last two remaining. Who knows how far they've made it by now. When you're so far removed from the situation, it's kind of hard to not watch this unfold as if it were a movie and cheer for the fugitives. And let's not forget, based on the writing on the wall of the cell they escaped from, we have reason to believe they may have been innocent this whole time.
