MACON, Ga. — One of the four inmates who escaped the Bibb County Jail in October 2023, Johnifer Barnwell has a plea hearing set for July 18 He is expected to plead guilty.
If that happens, he will join fellow escapee, Chavis Stokes, in pleading guilty to his escape charge.
Back on Feb. 29, Stokes appeared before Bibb Superior Court Judge Kenneth Smith and he admitted to escaping from the Bibb County jail in the early hours of Oct. 16, 2023. Stokes was sentenced to five years in prison.
Unlike the other three escapees, Barnwell was the sole federal inmate and he had been convicted Oct. 2, 2023— two weeks before the escape — on a number of drug and gun charges.
He was convicted of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and cocaine base. On those charges, Barnwell faces up to life in prison and a $10 million fine. On the charge of escape, he faces an additional five years in prison.
Barnwell's indictment also accuses Janecia Green of helping Barnwell escape from jail. She also faces five years for her alleged role in helping Barnwell's time on the lam.
On the day of the escape, surveillance cameras at Green's apartment complex showed her leaving her home at around 3:17 a.m., an FBI affidavit shows. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office believes the inmates escaped around 3:30 a.m.
Then, at around 4 a.m., a car registered to Green was captured on a license plate camera on Highway 57 eastbound in Jones County. That highway heads towards Augusta and the South Carolina border.
Barnwell was ultimately found in a home in Augusta surrounded with pounds of drugs, including 64 pounds of Fentanyl, according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
According to Bibb County Sheriff David Davis, Barnwell's connection with Green and Jacorshia Smith — who was also charged with aiding and abetting — would lead them to the Augusta home where Barnwell was captured.
He said that the pair were caught "swapping cars" while they were visiting Barnwell up in Augusta.
On Oct. 16, four inmates escaped from the Bibb County Jail. The four men — Marc Anderson, Joey Fournier, Johnifer Barnwell and Chavis Stokes — broke out from a dayroom window.
Over a month after the escape, all four men were captured.
Chavis Stokes was the first to be arrested on Oct. 26, caught in Montezuma in Macon County. Then, they captured Marc Anderson in a luxury high-rise in Atlanta's wealthy Buckhead neighborhood on Nov. 3.
Barnwell was arrested in Augusta on Nov. 12.
Fournier was captured in Stockbridge after hiding out in a homeless encampment.
Marc Anderson was captured after Tymeshia Timley, who was arrested for aiding Anderson, ordered over $38 worth of food from the Peach Cobbler Cafe to the Buckhead skyrise Anderson was hiding out in.