To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our community’s experience in 2024. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.
In August, a convicted murderer escaped his transport officers during a medical visit to Orange County and kicked off a whirlwind four days as law enforcement launched a massive search effort. Beyond any concerns about the community’s safety, residents’ interest around the case focused not just on how the escape and evasion happened — but the prisoner’s ties to the area.
On the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 13, Ramone Alston was riding in the back of a transport van as it pulled in to UNC Gastroenterology on Waterstone Drive in Hillsborough. A prisoner of the state Department of Adult Correction, he was coming from Bertie Correctional Institution in Windsor, N.C. for a medical appointment. But when the van stopped and the pair of transport officers opened the rear door, Alston burst out — free of his leg restraints — and took off running into nearby woods.
The public was first warned through an OC Alert message at 7:29 a.m. about the escaped inmate before the Orange County Sheriff’s Office shared a Facebook post around 7:45 a.m. In the initial hours after Alston’s escape, a massive ground search was started around the UNC Hospitals campus in Hillsborough to look for any clues or signs of where Alston may have been hiding — or heading.
The return to Orange County was one of the first for Alston since being convicted of murder in 2018 for the death of a 14-month-old infant, Maleah Williams, on Christmas Day in 2015. The life sentence stems from a drive-by shooting at the Trinity Court Apartments community in Chapel Hill, where Alston was a native. Because of the local nature of the escape, Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood issued a warning during the search to anyone who may have helped Alston evade the law.
“I’ve known Ramone since he was born,” Blackwood said, having gone to school with Alston’s father. “He was a troubled child and he’s been involved in criminal activity since he was a juvenile.
“He is extremely cagey, he’s extremely dangerous, and he has nothing to lose,” he concluded during a press briefing with the media.
The search in Orange County was slowed after nearly two days of covering a 1,330-acre radius around the area. More than a dozen law enforcement agencies assisted the state Department of Corrections, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s emergency services department in the search. In total, 335 personnel took part in the local search before local law enforcement declared Alston not likely in the area and said the community was not in imminent danger on Wednesday, Aug. 14. A reward of $50,000 was offered to anyone who would offer up information on Alston’s whereabouts and any accomplices.
Two days later, a tip led to several law enforcement agencies cornering Alston at a hotel in Kannapolis, N.C., where he surrendered to authorities with no resistance. Because of his escape attempt, Alston now has a felony escape charge tacked onto the life sentence he is serving at the Granville Correctional Center — the highest-security unit within North Carolina’s prison system, according to the Department of Adult Correction. Law enforcement also arrested two women — Jacobia Crisp of Alamance County and Monique Brady of Graham — on charges of aiding Alston’s escape. Brady is Alston’s sister, while law enforcement said Crisp began a relationship with Alston over the phone while he was in prison.
“I am grateful to our DAC staff and thankful for the support and effort from hundreds of local, state and federal public safety officers who helped in the search and investigation that returned Alston safely to custody,” Secretary of the Department of Adult Correction Todd Ishee said after Alston’s capture. “This was an incredible collaborative effort of many people and agencies.”
The incident has led the Department of Adult Correction and state to re-evaluate its medical appointment practices, using an after-action review from Alston’s escape as inspiration. According to the News & Observer, some of the changes either approved or already enacted are increased telemedicine visits and online consultations with specialists outside of prisons — as well as more in-house specialty medical services. Additional tweaks include the actual custody approaches when traveling with inmates outside the prison system and providing transport staff with annual training to prepare for escape attempts.
After the manhunt and arrest of Alston, Blackwood joined 97.9 The Hill in studios with Orange County Emergency Services Director Kirby Saunders and Public Information Officer for the sheriff’s office Alicia Stemper to debrief about the saga. While much concern was centered on the broader community’s safety, the sheriff pointed out that there was one victim lost in the shuffle of Alston’s escape: the family of Maleah Williams, who Alston killed in 2015. Blackwood said while he neglected to initially reach out to them to check on their wellbeing during the search for Alston, he made sure to get in touch and offer his condolences.
“The family has had to re-live this whole incident all over again,” he told 97.9 The Hill. “It’s heartbreaking what happened, they’ve had to pack it away emotionally, and now they’ve had to unpack it. I just want to tell them that I’m very sorry that this occurred — and I’m also sorry that during the initial response that I didn’t reach out to them.”
Featured photo via the North Carolina Department of Public Safety/PBS North Carolina.
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