HOPEWELL, Va. — Three of four inmates who “walked away” from a satellite campus of a federal prison over the weekend were back in custody by Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
Update 4:05 p.m. EDT June 21: Officials with the U.S. Marshals Service told WWBT that Corey Branch, 41, and Kareem Shaw, 46, turned themselves in without incident early on Tuesday.
Officials told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Tavares Lajuane Graham, 44, returned to the facility early Sunday. Authorities took him back into custody.
Lamonte Rashawn Willis, 30, remained at large Tuesday.
Original report: According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 44-year-old Tavares Lajuane Graham returned to the Federal Correctional Complex Petersburg’s minimum-security satellite camp in Hopewell, Virginia, and turned himself in early Sunday, U.S. Marshals Service Capital Regional Fugitive Task Force supervisor Kevin Connolly said Monday.
Graham – who had been convicted of possessing and intending to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, as well as a weapons charge – will face a federal prison escape charge, Connolly told the newspaper. If he is convicted, Graham, who had already been serving a 10-year prison sentence, could receive a maximum of five more years behind bars, the Times-Dispatch reported.
The news came just days after officials discovered shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday that Graham and three other inmates – 41-year-old Corey Branch, 30-year-old Lamonte Rashawn Willis and 46-year-old Kareem Allen Shaw – had vanished from the facility, according to NPR. Officials believe the inmates left about 10 p.m. Friday, Connolly told the Times-Dispatch.
U.S. Marshals hope the offer of a reward – as much as $2,000 per recovered inmate – will prompt tips as officials continue to search for the three other escapees, the Times-Dispatch reported.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons said Branch, a Black man with brown eyes and black hair, weighs 200 pounds and stands 5 feet, 8 inches tall, WTVR reported. He had been convicted of possessing and intending to distribute fentanyl, as well as a weapons charge, according to the news outlet.
Willis, who is Black with brown eyes, is 6-foot-2 and weighs 165 pounds, authorities said. He had been convicted of weapons charges, according to WTVR.
Officials said Shaw, who is Black with brown eyes and black hair, is 5-foot-8 and weighs 167 pounds, WTVR reported. He had been convicted of conspiring to possess heroin and intending to distribute the drug, authorities said.
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