NEW ORLEANS — The four juvenile detainees who escaped and carjacked a woman in January were quietly sentenced to four years each for the breakout, according to New Orleans Juvenile Court officials.
The juveniles – 14, 15 and two 17 year-olds – pleaded guilty to the escape charges Tuesday on the day of their scheduled trial, officials said.
The Jan.12 break-out and subsequent car-jacking sent NOPD officers scrambling across the city to find them. All four were back in custody within five days.
A 17-year-old was captured the next day in the West Lake Forest area, the NOPD said. The 14-year-old was arrested in Gert Town that same day in the 8800 block of Stroelitz Street. Another 17-year-old was detained later that day in the 1100 block of N. Johnson Street.
The last escapee, the 15-year-old, turned himself in at the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center five days after the escape.
Then-Juvenile Justice Director Kyshun Webster, now on indefinite leave, said one of the youths stole an electronic key card from a JJIC employee, a breach that Webster described as “human error” that would require tightening of jail security.
“One youth accessed a swipe card and allowed the other youths out of their cells,” Webster said at a press briefing on the day of the escape.
Webster said guards and other staff members tried to chase the juveniles but lost them as they disappeared into the neighborhood.
Juvenile criminal records are not public, but WWL-TV confirmed that the 15-year-old was awaiting trial as an adult for second-degree murder for allegedly shooting and killing a 14-year-old on a Central City playground in April 2021.
After the escape, three adults were booked with conspiracy to simply escape for harboring the 14-year-old fugitive. The cases against Gerard Turner, 28, and Brittany White, 35, are pending in state court, court records show. Information on the third suspect, 40-year-old Lakisha White, was unavailable.