AUGUSTA, Ga. — Another escaped Bibb County inmate is now back in custody 29 days after four people chiseled their way out of a second-floor jail window.
Investigators found Johnifer Barnwell Sunday in an Augusta home. He's the third inmate to be captured during the manhunt that gathered national attention. All three were caught a combined 267 miles from the jail.
Just like Chavis Stokes and Marc Anderson, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office plans to bring Barnwell back to the same jail he escaped from. So far, they haven't said when that will happen. Monday evening, he was still in custody in Augusta.
"They were obviously working on this guy for a while," Thomas Granat told CBS affiliate WRDW.
Multiple agencies worked for nearly a month to put three escapees back behind the barbed wire.
"Those partnerships have really paid off, and it shows how well we all do work together on the federal, state and local level," Sheriff David Davis said last week.
Granat said his Sunday morning was a little different than expected.
"All of a sudden, I heard, 'FBI, open up,'" he said.
The Bibb Sheriff's Office says around 8 a.m. Sunday, the FBI, GBI, their own deputies and deputies from Richmond and Burke Counties arrested Barnwell. It all happened right next to Granat's house.
"I was about to get up and go to church," he said. "I looked out the window and there were FBI cars lining the street blocking my car, my driveway. I looked over and there was an armored truck, guns drawn at the house next to me. And so there was an FBI raid right next to me."
Authorities found Barnwell farthest of all — 121 miles from the Bibb County jail. Investigators found Marc Anderson Nov. 3 in a Buckhead high-rise. They found Chavis Stokes Oct. 26 in a Montezuma home.
Barnwell was in jail waiting on sentencing for federal drug charges. Just two weeks before he escaped the jail, a jury convicted him of leading a drug trafficking operation.
He now faces an additional charge: Unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in federal court.
Stokes, Anderson and Joey Fournier all face a felony escape charge in Bibb County Superior Court. That carries a maximum sentence of five years if convicted.
Fournier is still on the run. He was in jail charged with killing his ex-girlfriend, Cynthia Berry, in 2022.
Berry filed a protective order against Fournier in 2021. He allegedly strangled her to death in her new home the next year. The sheriff's office says it took them at least 27 minutes to respond that night.
If you have any information, you can call Crimestoppers at 1 (877) 68CRIME, the Bibb Sheriff's Office tip lines at (478) 310-4502 and (478) 310-4485, or the FBI tip line at 1 (800) 225-5324.