Georgia wants to execute inmates accused of killing guards

September 19, 2017

ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) -- Two inmates accused of killing their guards on a Georgia prison bus three months ago have been indicted on multiple charges, including murder, and the state plans to seek the death penalty.

A grand jury on Tuesday indicted 44-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose. Each man faces two counts of murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of escape and one count of hijacking a motor vehicle.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Stephen Bradley notified the court that he would seek the death penalty against both men.

Dubose and Rowe are accused of disarming and killing sergeants Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue while escaping from the prison transfer bus on June 13, then carjacking a motorist to get away.

they were arrested two days later in Tennessee.

June 21, 2017

EATONTON, Ga. (AP) -- Two Georgia inmates accused of killing two correctional officers during an escape from a prison bus last week face charges including murder.

Multiple news outlets report that Donnie Russell Rowe and Ricky Dubose appeared in Putnam County Superior Court on Wednesday. A judge told them they're charged with two counts of murder and one count each of felony escape and motor vehicle hijacking.

The judge declined to set bond.

The two men are accused of killing Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue in the bus on state Highway 16 in Putnam County, southeast of Atlanta, on June 13 as they were being moved from one prison to another. Authorities say they then carjacked a driver and fled in the stolen car.

They were arrested two days later in Tennessee.

June 16, 2017

CHRISTIANA, Tenn. (AP) -- Officials say the two escaped inmates wanted in the slayings of two Georgia correctional officers were captured in Tennessee after a homeowner held the inmates at gunpoint until authorities could arrive.

Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Bill Miller said the homeowner caught Donnie Rowe and Ricky Dubose trying to steal his vehicle.

Miller says the homeowner held the two at gunpoint with a neighbor until the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department could arrive to arrest them.

Miller says the escaped Georgia inmates had crashed a car earlier that day while being chased by law enforcement, and fled on foot into the woods along Interstate 24 near the rural community of Christiana.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles says police in Shelbyville, Tennessee, got a call about a home invasion Thursday. She says Rowe and Dubose held an elderly couple captive and then fled in the couple's vehicle.

Miles says the inmates got in a wreck while fleeing police, left the vehicle, and ran from the scene.

Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier said in a news release that the pair "will be brought to justice swiftly for their heinous crime against our Officers.

June 15, 2017

CHRISTIANA, Tenn. (AP) -- Authorities say they have captured two escaped inmates wanted in the slayings of two Georgia correctional officers.

Georgia Bureau of Investigations spokeswoman Nelly Miles says 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose were apprehended Thursday in Christiana, Tennessee.

The inmates were being hunted in the Tuesday morning killings of two correctional officers who were overpowered, disarmed and shot to death on a prison bus southeast of Atlanta.

Baldwin State Prison transfer sergeants Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue were slain. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills called the fugitive inmates "dangerous beyond description."

Authorities had offered a $130,000 reward for information leading to their arrests.

June 15, 2017

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The two escaped Georgia inmates have been captured in Tennessee after a manhunt following the slayings of two Georgia correctional officers.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal tweeted confirmation that the two had been captured.

Stay with WCTV as more information becomes available.

June 15, 2017

MADISON, Ga. (AP) -- The FBI is rolling out what it calls "a significant media effort" including "a nationwide billboard campaign" to appeal for help from the public in tracking down two inmates sought in the killings of their guards on a Georgia prison bus.

Agent David LeValley, who runs the FBI's Atlanta office, says the billboards will offer specifics about a reward, now up to $130,000, and a nationwide tip line for the case, at the number 877-926-8332.

LeValley stresses that the reward is for information leading to an arrest. He says "We do not offer rewards for someone to be brought in dead or alive."

The fugitives -- 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose -- are believed to have stolen a white Ford F250 pickup truck with the Georgia tag BCX-5372 around midnight Tuesday in Madison, Georgia.

June 13, 2017

EATONTON, Ga.(AP) -- A manhunt is underway for two inmates accused of killing two correctional officers on a Georgia prison bus Tuesday morning.

The reward has increased for information leading to the arrests of two escaped Georgia inmates accused of killing two correctional officers.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in an email Wednesday that multiple agencies have contributed $70,000 to the arrest of 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says authorities have still not located the two escaped inmates wanted in the killings of two correctional officers.

However, Sills says the fugitives committed a burglary in Madison, Georgia, about 25 miles north of the spot where they were previously seen carjacking a motorist after escaping from the prison bus.

He says an intense manhunt is focused on Madison after two men fitting the description of the suspects were seen entering a Family Dollar store.

The store is less than a mile away from a house that was also burglarized.

Sills says authorities have no reason to believe the two inmates have split up.

A reward of $60,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrests of two escaped Georgia inmates accused of killing two correctional officers.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in an email that multiple agencies have contributed to this sum. The agency tweeted that the amount is likely to increase.

June 13, 2017

EATONTON, Ga. -- A manhunt is underway for two inmates accused of killing two correctional officers on a Georgia prison bus Tuesday morning.

Donnie Russell Rowe, 43, and Ricky Dubose, 24, overpowered and disarmed the two guards around 6:45 a.m. as 33 inmates were being driven between prisons, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told reporters. One of the two inmates then shot and killed both officers, Sills said.

"We are still desperately looking for these two individuals. They are armed with 9 mm pistols that were taken from these correctional officers. They are dangerous beyond description. If anyone sees them or comes into contact, they need to call 911 immediately," the sheriff said.

The FBI said the fugitives were last seen getting into a "grass green," four-door 2004 Honda Civic with the Georgia license plate number RBJ-6601, and driving west on state Highway 16 toward Eatonton, southeast of Atlanta.

CBS affiliate WGCL-TV shared a purported photo of the stolen vehicle on Twitter.

The Georgia Department of Corrections identified the guards as Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue, both officers at Baldwin State Prison. Monica had been with the department since October 2009 and Billue since July 2007.

Sills was emotional as he described the scene.

"I saw two brutally murdered corrections officers, that's what I saw," he said. "I have their blood on my shoes."

How the inmates managed to reach and overpower the guards remains under investigation, Sills said.

"They were inside the caged area of the bus," he said. "How they got through the locks and things up to that area I do not know."

Protocol is to have two armed corrections officers on the bus, but the officers don't wear bullet-proof vests during transfers, Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier said.

"We lost two of our fellow officers, two of our kin. We see our officers as our family," Dozier said.

Monica was 42 and leaves behind a wife, while Billue was 58 and is survived by his father, brother and sister. The officers' families are "dealing with it the best they can at this point," Dozier said.

The inmates on the bus were being moved from a state prison in Hancock County to a diagnostics center in Jackson, where their next placement was to be determined, Dozier said, adding that inmates do not know their transfer dates ahead of time.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said federal resources are being committed to help catch the fugitives.

"An attack on any American law enforcement officer is an attack on every American law enforcement officer and the principles we all believe in," Rosenstein told a Senate budget panel in Washington Tuesday morning.

WGCL-TV reports Rowe was convicted on charges of aggravated assault and armed robbery. Dubose was imprisoned after he was found guilty of credit card fraud, armed robbery, theft and aggravated assault.

The Department of Corrections said Rowe has been serving life without parole since 2002, and Dubose began a 20-year sentence in 2015.

A photo released by the sheriff's office in Elbert County, the site of his most recent conviction, shows Dubose with prominent tattoos. He appears to have a crown tattooed above his right eyebrow, writing above his left eyebrow and large letters covering the entire front of his neck. Dubose stands 6 feet tall and weighs 150 pounds.

Detectives say Rowe has brown hair and blue eyes. He stands around 6-foot-2 tall and weighs 150 pounds.

Authorities are urging the public not to approach the men and to call 911 if they spot the pair.