Sister of Ramone Alston charged with helping him escape custody and avoid capture

A second person has been charged and arrested for helping Ramone Alston escape and avoid capture.

Alston's sister, Monique Brady, 43, has been charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive and harboring an escapee. Both of those charges are felonies.

Alston escaped from correctional officers on Aug. 13 as he was arriving for a medical appointment at a Hillsborough hospital. He was serving a life sentence for the 2015 shooting death of 1-year-old Maleah Williams in Chapel Hill.

He remained on the run for three days but was eventually tracked down and arrested at a motel in Kannapolis.

Jacobia Crisp was the first person arrested and charged with assisting Alston. She reportedly didn't meet him until after he was incarcerated for murder. The two struck up some sort of relationship through phone communication, according to investigators.

Brady was placed in the Orange County Detention Center under a $30,000 secured bond. Her first appearance in court is set for 2 p.m. Thursday.

"This investigation is ongoing; more arrests are possible. We owe it to our community and Maleah's family to hold everyone who assisted Alston accountable for the danger and fear their actions caused," Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said.

If anyone has any additional information about this case, please contact Sgt. Goodwin at (919) 245-2918.

SEE ALSO | Orange County sheriff opens up about prison escape in Hillsborough

If Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood had to do it over again, he would have done some things differently in the Ramone Alston case.

Who is Ramone Alston?

Alston was convicted of shooting and killing 1-year-old Maleah on Christmas Day in 2015. Maleah's mother told ABC11 then that the children were outside playing with their Christmas toys and she was holding her daughter when someone started firing shots in the area. She was running from the area when she realized a bullet had struck Maleah.

"We don't have any added feelings about Mr. Alston, we're just displeased with the (Department of Public Safety) and their efforts to keep him in custody, or lack thereof. We wish Mr. Alston and his family nothing but peace, blessings, and prosperity," Maleah's father Shaquille Williams said in a statement Tuesday.

Williams added that the thing that bothered him was that "somehow, he got out of his leg shackles."

Alston and another man, Pierre Je Bron Moore took a plea deal in 2019. Alston received a life sentence for the child's murder and Moore received 28 to 34 years.

ABC11 uncovered that Alston recently tried to get his sentence lightened. Records show Alston filed a motion for appropriate relief in October 2023.

The 20-page document goes through the evidence and facts of his case. In the document, Alston claims the state used misleading evidence in its case. The motion was denied in May, with a judge saying Alston had a fair, full hearing and the claims in the motion for appropriate relief lacked merit.

Other escapees in North Carolina

According to DAC, there are 33 escaped inmates on the run from custody in North Carolina.

The most recent escapee is Alston. The longest at-large escapee is Eddie Leonard. He escaped on March 26, 1962. Leonard was in prison on first-degree burglary charges.

Of the 33, all but two escaped in the 1900s. Alston and Delfino Juarez are the only DAC inmates to escape in the 21st century who have not yet been apprehended. Juarez escaped Sept. 30, 2000.

Because of the length of time since many of the inmates escaped, DAC said it was not sure how many of the 33 escapees are still alive.