MACON, Ga. — One of the men who escaped from the Bibb County jail back in October 2023 has pleaded guilty to escaping from the downtown Macon facility.
Johnifer Barnwell admitted to the crimes against him in a Thursday afternoon hearing before U.S. District Court Judge C. Ashley Royal.
“Are you pleading guilty on your own free will… because you are guilty of the crime you are accused of,” Royal said
“Yes,” Barnwell leaned into the microphone said.
In the early hours of Oct. 16, 2023, Johnifer Barnwell and three others are accused of escaping through a damaged dayroom window in the B300 block. They then crawled through two holes cut in the fence of the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center earlier that evening.
Out of the four escapees, Barnwell was the only federal inmate – and the only man convicted of the crime he was in jail for. He had been found guilty just two weeks earlier on drug trafficking charges that carry up to life in prison.
After almost a month on the run, Barnwell was captured nearly 121 miles from the Bibb County jail. He was found in an Augusta home on Nov. 12, 2023 surrounded by over 60 pounds of the deadly drug fentanyl among other illicit substances, the sheriff’s office said at the time.
The federal prosecutor on the case, Joy Odom, highlighted his return to the drug trade when outlining the case against him.
“During the month Barnwell was a fugitive, he made no efforts to turn himself in and end the extensive and time-intensive manhunt,” Odom said. “He resumed the drug trafficking he had been convicted of.”
Royal then asked Barnwell whether everything Odom said was true. Barnwell shook his head.
But while admitting to the escape, Barnwell and his attorney did clarify they were only pleading guilty to that charge, and Barnwell was not admitting to any of the drug and gun crimes outlined by Odom.
“Emphatically for the record and on the behalf of Mr. Barnwell… we are simply charged with one count of escape,” Barnwell’s attorney Markus Boenig said. “We are entering no plea regarding the drugs or the firearms… That would have to be proven at trial.”
Barnwell joins another escapee, Chavis Stokes, in pleading guilty to their escape charges. He pleaded guilty before a Superior Court judge on Feb. 29 and was sentenced to five years.
Representatives with the U.S. Attorney's Office say Barnwell's sentencing on the escape charge will be held at the same time as his sentencing for drug trafficking. He faces up to 5 years in prison on his escape charge.
On his way out of the courtroom, Barnwell issued only this statement: “Tell people not to believe what they hear on the news.”
How Barnwell escaped and how was he captured?
During the course of his time on the run, there was one thing that Bibb County Sheriff David Davis highlighted as leading them to Barnwell: girls.
In a press conference after all inmates were captured, Davis told reporters that two women – Jacorshia Smith and Janecia Green – were “swapping cars” while visiting Barnwell in Augusta. He says that would ultimately lead authorities straight to Barnwell’s door.
Green also faces federal charges for allegedly helping Barnwell escape and avoid capture.
The hearing also offered new details about Green's role in aiding Barnwell.
Odom says Green purchased a mallet used during the escape and gave it to another escaped fugitive, Christian Williams.
“Green gave the mallet to Christian Williams – an associate of Mr. Barnwell – who would smuggle it into the Bibb County jail,” Odom said.
The day before he was set to stand trial in March 2023, Williams was caught on camera allegedly being kidnapped, which the sheriff's office said was suspicious.
Then seven months later, Williams committed suicide when authorities descended on the Vineville Avenue apartment he was hiding out at, the Pines at Vineville. The sheriff's office said the raid was a part of the jail escape investigation, but they never connected what role Williams had.
However, whether Williams smuggled the mallett into the jail himself or delegated it to someone else is unclear.
Another man, Jakaylen Williams, is accused of dropping supplies off at the jail the night of the jail escape and cutting the holes in the fence.
An FBI affidavit filed shortly after the escape also accuses Green of picking Barnwell up and driving him out of state. Her car was seen leaving her apartment complex roughly 15 minutes before the escapees jumped from the B300 dayroom window at around 3:30 a.m.
The affidavit also says Green's car was captured driving eastbound on Highway 57 and Davis Drive at 4:08 a.m. on a license plate reader, which heads towards Agusuta and the South Carolina border.
Barnwell was eventually arrested in Augusta during an 8 a.m. raid involving the FBI, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Marshal’s along with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for Middle and Southern District of Georgia.
Royal told Barnwell a report will be written about his past, which will be used to inform the sentencing phase of their case. They say he'll be sentenced on his escape charge at the same time as his drug trafficking conviction.