PRINCE GEORGE, Va. —
All four inmates who escaped from a federal prison’s satellite camp in Virginia are back in custody, the U.S. Marshals Service and Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Wednesday.
Lamonte Rashawn Willis, of Suffolk, Virginia, was the final inmate to turn himself back in at the low-security satellite camp around noon Wednesday, officials said. No other details of his surrender were released.
Willis and three other “trustees” — Tavares Lajuane Graham, Corey Branch ad Kareem Allen Shaw — were reported missing from Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) Petersburg in Hopewell, Virginia, early Saturday after an impromptu head count inside the satellite camp. Because they were trustees, all four men were allowed access to life beyond the complex’s walls with limited supervision.
Branch, 41, was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to more than 13 years for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Graham, 44, was sentenced in the Eastern District of North Carolina to 10 years for possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and 28 grams or more of cocaine base and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
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Willis, 30, was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to 18 years for possessing and concealing a stolen firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Shaw, 46, was sentenced in the Western District of Virginia to more than 16 years for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a measurable quantity of heroin.
An official with the U.S. Marshals Service office in Richmond, Virginia, said the four were apparently out socially Friday night and chose not to return in time for the head count. Graham returned to the prison early Sunday, roughly 24 hours after he left. Branch and Shaw surrendered shortly after midnight Tuesday.
The Marshals Service had encouraged Willis, whom they believed may have returned to his home in Suffolk, to turn himself in rather than risk capture and lengthening his prison time.
All four men are now being held in the medium-security section of the prison, FCC-Petersburg said. Each faces the possibility of extending their stays there by a maximum of five years for escaping from federal prison.
The Marshals Service and the federal Bureau of Prisons, which operates FCC-Petersburg, are investigating how the men were allowed to slip away.
Contributing: The Associated Press