‘I didn’t break out. I was let out’: New Orleans jail escapee blames corruption in viral clip, pleads for help from Trump

Antoine Massey video (Image credits: X @MAGAgeddon)

“I didn’t break out. I was let out.” That’s the claim made in a now-deleted video posted Sunday by a man identifying himself as Antoine Massey, one of two inmates still on the run from the Orleans justice center in New Orleans on May 16.In the video, he denied law enforcement reports that ten inmates escaped last month by removing a toilet, slipping through a hole behind it, crawling through a pipe chase, and exiting through a loading dock.“They’re trying to make me out to be the mastermind. That’s not the truth,” the man says in the clip, which was removed from Instagram by Monday afternoon.“The reason why I left the jail is because these people were trying to give me a life sentence in both parishes for something I did not do,” he says. “Who I was in the past is not who I am today.”The video also shows the man holding up documents he describes as affidavits, saying, “These are the affidavits, look at the date.” He claims they prove a domestic abuse charge against him was false and based on a report filed by a jealous girlfriend who was attacked by others—not by him. The documents’ authenticity has not been confirmed.“All type of stuff going on and they covering it up … don’t care about nothing in the state of Louisiana. This is something that needs to go under a federal investigation,” he says, alleging systemic corruption inside the Orleans and St Tammany jails.During the video, he also asks for help from public figures including US President Donald Trump and rappers Meek Mill, Lil Wayne, and NBA YoungBoy, “I’m asking, please, for help … I’m saying people that been through the system that know it’s corrupt. Lil Wayne, Donald Trump, please, I’m asking for help. You know what I’m saying?”“When I get back in custody, I’m asking y’all please to come help, you feel what I’m saying? I’m asking the world,” he adds.He goes on to insist he’s a “good person” and “not a rapin’ man,” despite charges that describe a history of domestic violence.He also disputes statements made by jail maintenance worker Sterling Williams, who is accused of helping with the escape. Williams told police Massey threatened to “shank” him unless he disabled plumbing to assist the breakout. “Sterling flat-out lied on me.” Williams, 33, has been charged with one count of malfeasance in office and ten counts of being a principal to simple escape. Massey and fellow escapee Derrick Groves are the last two inmates still on the run from the group of 10 who broke out of the jail. Authorities have since recaptured eight of the escapees and arrested more than a dozen people accused of helping them.The reward for information leading to Massey or Groves has now climbed to $50,000 per inmate.Authorities have not confirmed when or where the video was recorded or definitively identified the man in the video as Massey.