Officers are elevating issues concerning the situations in a Louisiana jail as investigators proceed to seek for a person who authorities mentioned escaped the ability with two others final week by cutting down a wall.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz launched new images and a video Monday of the Dec. 2 escape, when authorities mentioned three detainees, Johnathan Jevon Joseph, Keith Eli and Joseph Allen Harrington, allegedly used sheets to scale the St. Landry Parish Jail’s outer wall, earlier than dropping onto a first-floor roof and fleeing.
The St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Workplace has launched new images and knowledge following an escape that occurred, Dec. 3, 2025, involving three males from the parish jail in Opelousas, La.
St. Landry Parish Authorities
At a information convention, Guidroz criticized the situations of the jail, positioned 130 miles northwest of New Orleans, and famous that there was ongoing building he alleged that will have given the detainees a solution to escape.
“[The] Parish authorities had a contracting crew on the market fixing a number of the water leaks of the roof, and so they left extension cords, they left rope and so they left any inmate a possibility to simply slide on out,” Guidroz mentioned in the course of the information convention Monday.
Two of the three escapees have been discovered final week. One of many inmates, Harrington, took his personal life Thursday after officers tracked him to a house and ordered him to give up, police mentioned.
Joseph surrendered to police the following day after authorities mentioned they adopted a tip and located him in one other residence.
Eli stays on the unfastened as of Tuesday and there’s a reward for his seize.
Keith Eli in police picture.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Workplace
Guidroz, in the meantime, has criticized St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard over the incident, claiming Guidroz has been asking for funding to restore the 43-year-old jail’s deficiencies.
Bellard mentioned in a Fb publish that the claims of “crumbling partitions and rusted out cell door locks have been inaccurate.”
“The safety incidents which have occurred are primarily resulting from a scarcity of deputies and an absence of coaching for present employees,” he mentioned.
“The Sheriff should take duty for enhancing deputy pay to make sure we’re aggressive with surrounding parishes, correctly compensating those that threat their lives each day,” Bellard added.
Guidroz dismissed Bellard’s declare, contending that the pay was “aggressive.”
“The pay for a non-post-certified corrections officer is $18 and a few change [an hour]. Should you get post-certified, it is $19.15, and we’re fixing it to go as much as $20,” the sheriff mentioned.
Bellard advised ABC affiliate KATC Monday that he disagreed with the sheriff’s characterization of the jail.
“The bricks and mortar are high quality, and I’ve every little thing to again it up,” he advised KATC.
“I have an architect coming from Baton Rouge tomorrow — a corrections specialist — to assist design methods to repair the cinder block points and forestall escapes. If I’ve to spend the cash myself to guard the general public, I’ll. However this solely applies to the third flooring — that’s the place the mortar is weakening. The opposite flooring have brick and mortar on the skin defending them,” Bellard added.
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