MACON, Ga. — Bibb County Sheriff David Davis spoke to reporters Monday and provided updates on the escape of four inmates from the Bibb County Jail during the early hours of the morning.
“Somebody that sees this tonight knows where these four people are,” Davis said. “And somebody is probably laughing at the T.V. set saying ‘They’ll never catch us. They’ll never catch us.’ We will catch them. They will come back to jail – it is just a matter of when.”
The inmates – facing charges ranging from murder to drug trafficking – escaped at around 3 a.m. Monday.
The four men include 52-year-old Joey Fournier, 29-year-old Chavis Stokes, 25-year-old Marc K. Anderson and 37-year-old Johnifer Barnwell, according to the release.
Davis said that the inmates were able to get out of their cells and into a dayroom, where they escaped through a window. They are still investigating how they got into the dayroom.
In the press conference, Davis also noted that this happened in the oldest section of the jail.
“We have a 43-year-old jail. This happened in the oldest part of the jail… the most rundown part of the jail,” Davis said. “I’ve been talking about how we need a new jail, we need a new jail – and we have a jail that is falling down on us, that is breaking down. ”
While he said that the age of the jail might have played a role, staffing was also an issue.
At the time of the breakout, there were fewer than 10 people working in the jail covering over 800 inmates, Davis said. For any shift in the jail, they say it takes 30 people to fill all the positions.
“Not blaming anything. We’re going to go back and figure out what were the causation of this, and rectify those things,” Davis said. “There is never just one thing that causes something like this. There are several things – staffing is one of them.”
They can’t say for sure that the inmates entered the blue Dodge Challenger that they released photos of, but it was in the parking lot around when the breakout happened.
“We’ve been getting leads, and we will continue to get them as they are going forward,” Davis said. “There will be a heightened vigilance in what goes on in the jail going forward.“
Davis told reporters that they found out the inmates were missing at 6 a.m. They then did a census of the jail to see how many inmates escaped, but they did have staffers out in the streets trying to find the missing men.
“We were out on the street searching and following leads,” Davis said. “They are supposed to count in every shift. But when this happened, it was between counts... it was 3:30 a.m., they are supposed to be asleep."
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He says that the public should be aware of their surroundings, and if they hear something, reach out to the sheriff's office. He said that they could be dangerous.
“Our main priority is to get these inmates recaptured,” Davis said.
Fournier was arrested and charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend in early 2022 at a Barrington Hall home.
Anderson was in jail for Aggravated Assault. Stokes was arrested in a 2020 drug bust.
Barnwell was convicted earlier this month of Armed Fentanyl, Meth and Heroin Trafficking and was arrested by the U.S Marshals.
If you'd like to know more about the escaped inmates, you can read more here.
When asked about the role of contraband cell phones in possibly coordinating the escape, Davis said that he isn’t sure, but they know that cell phones are a problem.
“There’s not a jail in Georgia that doesn’t have cell phones it in it. There’s not a prison in Georgia that doesn’t have cell phones it in it,” Davis said. “Every week, our deputies are doing shakedowns and searches and they are finding cell phones.”
He noted how they arrested one of the part-time corrections officers, Briana Pitts, who was caught bringing contraband into the prison.
“It's always a cat and mouse game with contraband and cell phones and that kind of things in a correctional facility,” Davis said.
Davis said that they are working with the ATF, FBI and state partners to find them.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation when something like this happen,” Davis said. “We really want people to call in.”
If you have any information, you can contact the Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME. He also said there is a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the recapture of the four inmates.
There are also two hotlines with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office 478-310-4485 and 478-310-4502. Those two lines will be staffed for 24 hours.
“They could be anywhere,” Davis said. “We’re not sure if they are all together.”
He doesn’t believe the four inmates had any connection to one another outside of the jail, but they “definitely had some kind of association inside the jail,” Davis said.