PUTNAM COUNTY, Ga. — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video in this article is from previous coverage of the Ricky Dubose trial from earlier in June.
According to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills Ricky Dubose is dead after hanging himself in prison.
Ricky Dubose was recently found guilty for the murders of corrections officers Curtis Billue and Christopher Monica aboard a transport bus in Putnam County in 2017.
The killings set off a manhunt across several states. Dubose and fellow inmate Donnie Rowe were later caught in Tennessee.
Dubose was found guilty of felony and malice murder in the killing of two corrections officers in 2017 and was given the death penalty on all four counts on June 16, 2022.
In Sept. 2021, a jury convicted Rowe of charges in connection with the case, including felony and malice murder. Rowe is now serving life without the possibility of parole.
Unlike Rowe, Dubose was unable to avoid the death penalty despite his team of attorneys' efforts to convince the jury the death penalty should not be given because he was intellectually disabled and mentally ill.
The defense presented records showing Dubose was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and did not have proper prenatal care.
They explained his mother smoked during the pregnancy, causing problems even before he was born and he struggled to walk, speak and go to school.
Before the bus attack, Dubose was referred to the Baldwin State prison doctor for medication. He never received the medication before the shooting.
The jury sided with the prosecution and convicted Dubose in a unanimous verdict on the 5th anniversary of Dubose's initial crime spree. Three days later, they decided his fate would be the death penalty.
CASE TIMELINE
June 13, 2017: Investigators say Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe were being transported on a bus when they overpowered the two guards, killed them and escaped. It happened on Highway 16 W of Sparta near Eatonton around 6:45 a.m. There were 33 prisoners and two guards on the bus.
A man was driving on the highway when he saw the stopped bus and thought it was part of a work detail. When he stopped his car, he was robbed at gunpoint. The driver was unharmed and flagged down the next car for help.
During a media briefing that night, Sheriff Howard Sills said the two inmates broke into a home in Morgan County earlier that day. The home was ransacked and Dubose and Rowe stole some food and clothes, according to Sills.
June 14, 2017: The search for the two inmates expanded around the Southeast. Authorities said they recovered the vehicle taken by the two escaped inmates near the scene of the house burglary.
That night, a white Ford F-250 was stolen from the Seven Islands Road area of Morgan County.
June 15, 2017: Police in Shelbyville, Tennessee, told the GBI they responded to a home invasion where the two inmates tied two people up and left the scene.
According to Bedford County Sheriff Austin Swing, Dubose and Rowe ditched a vehicle at the base of a hill in Shelbyville, covering the car with grass and branches.
Swing said they forced their way into a home at gunpoint and the couple who lived there spent the next three hours tied up while the fugitives ate their beef stew and pilfered their valuables.
He said the two stole the couple's Jeep Cherokee and led deputies on a high-speed chase followed by a foot chase down I-24 just south of Murfreesboro.
A nearby homeowner heard the men outside and held them at gunpoint until law enforcement arrived.
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