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Court records have revealed new details about how three inmates escaped from the DeKalb County Jail and commandeered a terrified Lyft driver’s car to flee to south Florida.
The three inmates, identified Stevenson Charles, Yusuf Minor, and Naod Yohannes, were able to get out of the jail after compromising part of a cell late Sunday night, officials said. They remained on the run until they were arrested early Tuesday morning in Broward County, Florida.
Once out of the jail, the three men were picked up by an unnamed man and taken to Minor’s girlfriends’ home, U.S. Marshal Thomas Brown said. Then, using a fake, female name, they ordered a Lyft ride.
Officers tracked the car as it traveled to south Florida with the aid of license plate readers, devices that can alert law enforcement to the locations of wanted vehicles. When they caught up with the car and tried to stop it, one of the inmates jumped out and ran but was arrested along with a second inmate, according to a court affidavit.
DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office
Investigators also learned that the men used the Lyft driver’s credit card for a short-term rental of a home in Miramar, Florida, where officers apprehended the third inmate and rescued the driver, court records state.
The driver told investigators that she was held in the car for six to 10 hours as they tried to gain access to her phone and online banking records. After trying to escape once, she endured “increased threats of being shot, raped, and tortured,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.
“As you can imagine, the Lyft driver is very traumatized by this,” Brown said.
Lyft said in a statement to CBS News, “We are deeply concerned by this incident and relieved that the driver is safe. Our hearts are with the driver and we have reached out to offer support. Lyft is working closely with law enforcement to assist in any way we can as the investigation continues.”
All three inmates were charged with kidnapping as well as the escape, according to criminal complaints.
Who are the DeKalb County Jail inmates who escaped?
Charles, 24, was being held on murder and armed robbery charges and is serving a federal life sentence. Minor, 31, faces two counts of armed robbery and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Yohannes, 25, is charged with simple assault, arson, and unlawful acts of violence in a penal institution.
DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office 
Before they were captured, federal authorities had issued particularly strong warnings advising the citizens to be wary of Charles, who has had several run-ins with law officers in Georgia and Florida. He had been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of kidnapping and bank robbery, a federal agent wrote in a Monday affidavit regarding the recent jail escape.
After being sentenced, the agent wrote, Charles was turned over to DeKalb County authorities on Dec. 5 to face the murder charge, details of which were not immediately available.
In one of multiple cases involving Charles in South Florida, he is accused of meeting a man through the Grindr online dating application and then pulling a gun on him when they met in person at a Miami residence in 2022. Charles then drove the man to various Miami area banks, withdrawing money from the victim’s accounts, court records show.
The U.S. Marshals Service took the lead in tracking down Charles, while a regional task force focused on the other two inmates. Marshals said intelligence gathered from recorded jail phone calls helped investigators identify people who assisted the escape.
Inmates took advantage of an aging jail
DeKalb County Chief Deputy Temetris Atkins said the jail, which is more than 30 years old, has aging infrastructure that inmates were able to exploit. He declined to provide specific details about how the escape occurred, citing security concerns, but said repairs have already been made and additional safeguards are being evaluated.
Sheriff Melody Maddox emphasized that while the escape was a serious breach, her office acted immediately and will continue pushing for improvements at the jail facility.
“We know it’s going to cost money,” Maddox said. “But we either pay now, or we pay later.”
Officials said no one was harmed during the escape, and the investigation into how it happened remains active.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
