The authorities in North Carolina apprehended escaped murderer Ramone Alston on Friday morning at a hotel near Charlotte, NC. The convicted baby killer had been on the run since Tuesday when he slipped away from guards while attending a medical appointment.
The killer was captured at 2 a.m. at a hotel in Kannapolis following an operation involving FBI Charlotte SWAT agents, Kannapolis Police, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police. He was taken into custody without injury to anyone.
Alston has been charged with felony escape from prison and will now be transported to a high-security unit instead of the medium-security unit where he was previously incarcerated.
He will continue serving his life sentence for the 2015 murder of 1-year-old Maleah Williams.
On Tuesday, 30-year-old Alston was transported in a vehicle to UNC Hospital in Hillsborough. At some point close to the hospital, the prisoner managed to free himself from his leg restraints and jumped from the vehicle. He ran into a nearby wood, still wearing handcuffs.
The escape triggered a massive manhunt involving multiple agencies, helicopters, dogs, and ground searchers. The police covered hundreds of acres.
On Tuesday, the authorities offered $35,000 for any information that would lead to capture; yesterday, the cops upped the reward to $50,000.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelAlston was known to have family and friends in the Hillsborough area, so the police suspected he might have remained in the area. However, he was eventually found in Kannapolis, over 100 miles away.
Ramone Alston investigation shifts to who helped him as Jacobia Crisp arrested for aiding and abetting
The cops and the Dept. of Adult Correction will now focus their investigations on how Alston escaped, who helped him, and whether he committed any other crimes while on the run. The prison officers who were guarding Alston at the time remain on duty and haven’t been found to have done anything wrong.
The police in Alamance County have arrested a female acquaintance, Jacobia Crisp, who is now facing charges of felony aiding and abetting a fugitive.
A statement from Secretary Todd Ishee of the NC Dept. of Adult Correction read, “I am grateful to our DAC staff and thankful for the support and effort from hundreds of local, state and federal public safety officers who helped in the search and investigation that returned Alston safely to custody. This was an incredible collaborative effort of many people and agencies.”
Ramone Alston serving sentence for murder of 1-year-old Maleah Williams
The killer was in jail for the murder of Maleah Williams, a 1-year-old girl from Chapel Hill, NC, who was gunned down on Christmas Day 2015.
Maleah’s mother described how she was holding her daughter as she stood outside while the other children played with their new Christmas toys when suddenly disaster struck.
She heard gunfire and began running for cover before realizing Maleah had already been hit.
In May 2024, Alston’s appeal to reduce his sentence was rejected. The prisoner had claimed the state used misleading evidence against him, but a judge recently concluded that he had received a fair and full hearing.