Sister who allegedly helped Ramone Alston escape prison custody makes first court appearance

The sister of escaped inmate Ramone Alston, Monique Brady, appeared for the first time in court on Thursday.

She is accused of helping her brother after he escaped custody last week from corrections officers outside UNC Hospital Hillsborough. He was serving a life sentence for the 2015 shooting death of 1-year-old Maleah Williams in Chapel Hill.

Brady was arrested and charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting a fugitive and harboring an escapee.

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.

Orange County Sheriff Blackwood talked about his relationship with the case during Thursday's court appearance. He told ABC11 that from the very start, he had known Alston.

Blackwood also said he knew Alston's father and grew up with him in Orange County.

"Generally, the sheriff knows the folks in their community so the fact that I know them is not remarkable," said Blackwood. "The fact that I knew his father, I grew up with him. If you've grown up in this community which I did, that's one of the platforms I ran on."

Documents obtained by ABC11 date to August of 2009 when Brady was 25 years old and Alston was 15 years old. It shows that Brady was given custody and power of attorney from their mother, Norma.

The document was also signed by a district court judge and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System.

ABC11 tried to ask Brady questions before and after she faced a judge on Thursday but did not get an answer.

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.