With escapees on run from Bibb County jail, sheriff cautions public and seeks help in finding them

Caption

Four men escaped from Bibb County Jail on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. Clockwise from top left: Johnifer Barnwell, Joey Fournier, Kerry Anderson and Demaryo Stokes.

Credit: Bibb County Sheriff's office

Law enforcement officers in Bibb County are searching for four men who escaped from Bibb County Jail in the early hours of Monday morning.  

According to the Bibb County Sheriff’s office, the men, including one accused murderer, slipped through a broken window in a dayroom and a cut in a perimeter fence before fleeing in a blue Dodge Charger which had apparently been waiting for them at 3 a.m.  

When the public was notified a little after 11 a.m., all the schools in Bibb County were placed on a precautionary lockdown, though school officials said they saw no real danger to students.  

The escapees are 52-year-old Joey Fournier, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 140 pounds, held on a charge of murder;  24-year-old Marc Kerry Anderson, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 165 pounds, held for aggravated assault; 37-year-old Johnifer Dernard Barnwell, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 190 pounds, detained for the United States Marshalls; and 29-year-old Chavis Demaryo Stokes, 5 feet, 7 inches inches tall and 160 pounds, detained for possession of a firearm and drug trafficking.  

All are being sought by the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office along with the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Marshalls Office.
 

UPDATE: 

During a 3:30 p.m. press conference Monday, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said jail guards began realizing what happened three hours after the escape.  

Davis said the escape was due to a combination of chronically inadequate jail staffing and overcrowding, due in part backlogged prosecutions: "The main thing is, you got an old facility, you're just moving stuff around to make the best of a bad situation," Davis said. "We have a 40-something-year-old facility that's really just crumbling."

That, he said, means parts of the Bibb County jail are easy to escape.  

Davis said an internal investigation is underway even during the manhunt.