Escaped murderer caught near Charlotte, taken to most secure lockup in North Carolina

The three-day manhunt for an escaped murderer serving a life sentence ended early Friday at a hotel north of Charlotte.

Ramone Alston, 30, was captured shortly before 2 a.m. in Kannapolis, about 110 miles southwest of where he escaped, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Kannapolis is about a 25-mile drive northeast from Charlotte.

The hotel is on Cloverleaf Parkway, a heavily commercial strip near Interstate 85.

“He was taken into custody without injuries to anyone,” officials said. “Shortly thereafter, a female acquaintance ... was arrested in Alamance County and charged with felony aiding and abetting a fugitive.”

The woman was identified as Jacobia Shina Crisp, 32, of Burlington during a news conference Friday. Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said he did not know their specific relationship but it developed via telecommunications over several months.

Crisp, who court records show is also charged with felony harboring an escapee, was released Friday morning from the Alamance County Detention Center on a $30,000 secured bond. Her first court appearance will be Monday in Orange County.

Alston escaped from state correctional officers around 7 a.m. Tuesday as he was being taken to a medical appointment at UNC Hospitals’ Hillsborough campus.

“He had freed himself from leg restraints and, still in handcuffs, jumped out and ran into adjacent woods,” officials said. “When last seen, he was also wearing ... a belly chain with a black box over the junction.”

The two guards taking Alston to the hospital have been transferred to non-transportation duties, as officials continue investigating how he escaped, officials said at the news conference.

“We are going to assemble a large team. This was a big incident, so we will have several staff from many disciplines working on that,” said Todd Ishee, secretary of the N.C. Department of Adult Correction. “They will be working over the coming weeks on just about everything about the incident.”

Officials also do not yet have an estimate of how much it cost to catch Alston.

$50,000 reward had been offered

On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper had announced a reward leading to his capture had been increased to $50,000.

Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman did not know if the reward helped but said despite his life sentence, Alston would be prosecuted for his escape, if for nothing else, “out of principle.”

“Obviously we want there to be some type of punishment for this,” Neiman said in a brief phone interview Friday.

In a statement, he also thanked local, state and federal law enforcement partners for their “diligent, around-the-clock efforts to take Mr. Alston into custody.”

“We are acutely aware how unsettling this has been for the public here in Orange County and beyond,” Neiman said. ”Rest assured, any crime committed within our jurisdiction by Mr. Alston and any accomplices will be prosecuted by our office.”

Bob DeWitt, special agent in charge for the FBI in North Carolina, also praised law enforcement’s collaboration.

In his 22 years, he said, “I have never seen an effort like this work with such synchronicity as I have over the past few days.”

Christmas Day driveby shooting in Chapel Hill

Alston was serving a life sentence in Bertie Correctional Institution for the Christmas Day killing of 14-month-old Maleah Williams in 2015.

The drive-by shooting happened in the Trinity Court apartments parking lot in Chapel Hill, where children were playing with Christmas presents, The News & Observer reported. A bullet hit Maleah in the back of the head, and she died in the hospital three days later.

A second man involved in the shooting, Pierre Je Bron Moore, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2019 and sentenced to nearly 35 years in prison.

Alston was taken to a “high-security unit” at the Granville Correctional Institution, the most secure unit in the state prison system, Ishee said at the news conference Friday afternoon.

“The investigation will continue to determine his movements since he escaped on Tuesday, any additional accomplices that aided him, and if he committed any other crimes while on the run,” said the Sheriff’s Office.

The initial, 33-hour ground search for Alston involved 335 officers from 19 agencies and covered at least 1,335 acres, The N&O reported.

His recapture included FBI Charlotte SWAT agents, Kannapolis police and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, officials said.

Staff writer Tammy Grubb contributed to this report.

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