By Holly Yan, Rebekah Reiss, Amanda Jackson, CNN
(CNN) — A serial escapee who vanished from a New Orleans jail two weeks ago appeared to show up in someone’s kitchen, claiming his innocence and invoking rapper Lil Wayne and President Donald Trump in a video posted to social media.
Antoine Massey and nine other inmates broke out of the Orleans Justice Center on May 16 – taking advantage of bad locks, stolen bedding and a hungry jail employee to avoid capture.
Eight of the escapees have been caught – mostly in New Orleans. Only Massey, 32, and convicted murderer Derrick Groves, 27, are still on the run.
Massey has evaded hundreds of authorities in a multistate manhunt. But over the weekend, a man who strongly resembles the fugitive – including with three distinctive tattoos on his face – appeared in a video on Instagram.
“My name is Antoine Massey. I’m asking for help. I was one of the ones that was let out of Orleans Parish jail,” the man says in the video, shot in the kitchen of an unknown home.
“I’m asking – please – for help: YoungBoy, Meek Mills (sic) … people that have been through the system that we know is corrupt. Lil Wayne. Donald Trump.”
He made a personal appeal to Lil Wayne, claiming the two share longtime family connections.
“Please help me. Lil Wayne: This is Big Antoine’s son that’s talking right now. I’m Little Antoine. I was in your mama wedding when she married. I was the ring boy. Lil Wayne, please help me, bro.”
The man also holds a document to the camera – what he says is a stamped affidavit that proves his innocence.
Massey was charged with domestic abuse involving strangulation and motor vehicle theft. But he said his ex-girlfriend, Diamond White, recanted her allegation of abuse in the affidavit.
White has not responded to CNN’s request for comment. She was arrested after allegedly helping Massey after his escape, Louisiana State Police said.
In the video, the man says White “thought that I was dealing with another woman. That’s why she did what she did.”
While some of the stamped affidavit is blurry in the footage, it includes the words “MASSEY never physically came in contact with me.” CNN has asked the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office about the authenticity of the affidavit shown in the video.
The video was posted on what appeared to be a burner Instagram account and has since been deleted.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the man in the video is Massey, but “there’s a good chance it’s him,” Deputy US Marshal Brian Fair said.
“If he’s saying he is innocent, he can come turn himself in,” Fair told CNN on Tuesday. “He can go through the legal process, and it will resolve itself one way or another.”
Louisiana State Police, the agency leading the manhunt, declined to verify whether the man in the video is Massey.
“All video and surveillance evidence is part of the ongoing investigation and search for the escaped inmates,” state police said, and providing additional information “may hinder investigative leads or law enforcement operations.”
‘How could I threaten you with a shank?’
Identifying himself as Massey, the man in the video refuted claims he threatened to shank jail maintenance worker Sterling Williams if he didn’t turn off the water in a cell to aid the escape.
Williams told investigators he was instructed to turn the water off inside that cell, and one of the escapees threatened to “shank him if he did not.” Instead of reporting the inmate, he turned the water off as directed, allowing for the successful escape, the attorney general’s office said.
Williams was one of the first suspects arrested in connection with the jailbreak. He faces 10 counts related to the escapees and one count of malfeasance in office for acting “under the order of an inmate,” his arrest warrant affidavit states. His attorney has said one of the jail’s deputies asked Williams to fix the toilet because it was overflowing.
In the video, the man says it’s ludicrous to think he could threaten to shank Williams because maintenance workers at the jail are usually accompanied by guards when around inmates to help prevent possible contraband or bribery.
“The guy who said that I threatened him with a shank – the maintenance guy – how could I threaten you with a shank, if you can’t come around me?” he said.
“You cannot come (near the inmates) without a deputy right behind you. Because if they just let you (near the inmates), you could be persuaded to run drugs or anything like that.”
A chronic escapee
Massey’s history of escaping custody dates back to 2007. When he was 15, Massey broke out of a New Orleans juvenile detention center after being arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and aggravated assault, according to nola.com.
A broken lock at the center allowed Massey and five other juveniles to access metal shackles, which they used to shatter a window and escape, nola.com reported. The teen remained on the run for more than two weeks before authorities found him on an interstate in east New Orleans.
Two years later, Massey faced a charge of attempted simple escape in Orleans Parish, according to online court records. CNN reached out to the parish sheriff’s office for more details about the charge.
Then, when he was 27, Massey and another inmate broke out of a detention center in northern Louisiana in broad daylight by cutting and slipping under a chain-link fence in the exercise yard, Chief James Mardis of the Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office told CNN.
Authorities believe the two fugitives were picked up by a vehicle with Texas tags. Massey was captured later that day in Texas.
Massey has also twice cut off electronic ankle monitors, according to Matt Dennis, an employee with the company that operates the monitors, who spoke to CNN affiliate WDSU. Court records from late 2023 alleged Massey had “tampered and/or removed the court-ordered GPS monitor.”
Dennis told CNN affiliate WVUE he was “astonished” that someone with Massey’s history of escape was being held on the first floor of the New Orleans jail.
“There isn’t an ounce of this man’s history that doesn’t say ‘escape,’” he said.
As for the most recent escape, authorities are searching Louisiana and beyond – “following leads all over the place,” Fair said.
Officials announced $50,000 in reward money for anyone with information leading to the arrest of either Massey or Groves. The combined $100,000 offered comes from Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans, the FBI and other agencies.
CNN’s Jason Morris contributed to this report.
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