DeKalb inmates wrapped rope around Lyft driver’s neck in getaway, feds say
Three escaped inmates wrapped a rope around their Lyft driver’s neck, tied her wrists and dragged her into the car’s back seat during a 10-hour getaway trip from metro Atlanta to South Florida, federal authorities said.
It was the beginning of a harrowing ordeal for the ride-hailing driver who thought she was picking up another woman but ended up near Miami with the three wanted men. New details about this week’s DeKalb County Jail escape, including what the driver told FBI agents, were revealed in federal court documents filed Tuesday after the inmates were apprehended.
The men, Stevenson Charles, 24; Yusuf Minor, 31; and Naod Yohannes, 25, face federal kidnapping charges after officials said they hatched a plan to sneak out of the jail at some point late Sunday.
Law enforcement considered the missing men a violent group. Two of them are already serving life sentences for separate 2022 incidents, an attack and a killing, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Officials at a Tuesday news conference provided a rough sketch of their escape. They said the group had help, including from Minor’s girlfriend, who allegedly hailed the Lyft around 2:30 a.m. Monday.
When the driver, identified only as a victim, arrived to pick up the passengers, she realized none matched the account that had requested the ride and felt “uneasy,” according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida and obtained by the AJC.
Still, she continued the trip and took the men to a destination not specified in the document. That is when FBI agents say one of the men wrapped a rope around her neck from behind as she “struggled to save her life.”
After binding her hands, she was told to keep her head down, eyes closed and repeatedly ordered not to struggle or she’d be shot dead, the affidavit states. The woman estimated she was detained in the vehicle for around six to 10 hours.
At some point during the trip, the woman pieced together from the men’s conversations that her attackers were escaped inmates, court records state. She tried to get away from them after crossing into Florida but was assaulted by one of the men and faced “increased threats of being shot, raped and tortured,” the affidavit reads.
Once in Florida, the men allegedly used her bank cards at several locations. They also used one to book an Airbnb in the Miami suburb of Miramar, roughly 10 hours from Atlanta.
The men split up at some point, with Charles and Yohannes leaving the Airbnb in the victim’s car. Eventually, license plate readers led police to the Lyft vehicle, officials said.
Authorities said they caught up to the vehicle and arrested the two men. Minor was later arrested at the Airbnb, where law enforcement also found the victim.
The short-term vacation rental company said in a statement it is cooperating with law enforcement and has taken “action against the account used to create the booking.” The company said it is assisting the property’s host.
Lyft has also said it is assisting authorities and has reached out to its driver to offer support.
All three men remain in Florida’s Broward County jail as they await their initial appearance hearings in federal court on the kidnapping charge. Authorities have not said if anyone else will face charges.
Defense attorneys for Yohannes and Charles did not respond to requests for comment. Minor did not appear to have an attorney on record.
Charles had been jailed in DeKalb on charges of murder and armed robbery. He has a previous conviction of federal armed carjacking in Florida, according to the U.S. Marshals. He has also been serving a life sentence in a Gwinnett case in which he pleaded guilty to a slew of charges, including false imprisonment, aggravated sodomy and two counts each of kidnapping and armed robbery.
Minor’s charges that initially landed him in DeKalb’s jail include two counts of armed robbery and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He had been convicted of murder in 2024 and sentenced to life plus 25 years but will be eligible for parole, the AJC previously reported.
Yohannes’s charges are for simple assault, arson and unlawful acts of violence in a penal institution. While in jail before his escape, Yohannes was charged with simple assault and riot in a penal institution, booking records show.
Several questions about how the trio managed to get out of the jail remain unanswered. Sheriff Melody Maddox declined to discuss specifics Tuesday about what security measures failed but said officials are focusing on how to prevent it from happening again.
That includes “asking for things to assist us with this aging facility that’s deteriorating right before our eyes,” she said.
Construction on the 987,000-square-foot facility began in 1991 and cost $70 million, according to previous AJC reports.
