Prison Inmate Sentenced To Death After Killing 2 Guards In An Escape Attempt

A prisoner has been sentenced to death after killing two guards during an escape from a prison transport bus in Georgia five years ago (2017).

Gatekeepers News reports that Ricky Dubose, 29, shot and killed Sgt Christopher Monica and Sgt Curtis Billue.

He and inmate Donnie Rowe both then escaped from the prison transport bus.

A jury on Thursday agreed unanimously on a death sentence for Ricky.

The jury had found him guilty of charges including murder on Monday.

While Rowe was given life without parole.

Dubose and Rowe escaped together from the bus in Putnam County, south-east of Atlanta, on June 13 2017, and were arrested in Tennessee two days later following an intense manhunt.

Dubose was accused of firing the gun that killed the officers after he and Rowe slipped out of handcuffs and burst through an unlocked gate at the front of the bus.

A review of the escape determined the two inmates were able to easily free themselves from their handcuffs and then used an improvised tool to open an unlocked gate that separated the inmates from the guards.

Prosecutors say Dubose grabbed one of the officers’ weapons and shot Sgt Monica, the guard, and then Sgt Billue, the driver, both in the head.

Security cameras on the bus recorded the violent escape and roughly 30 other prisoners witnessed the killings.

Rowe and Dubose then carjacked the first driver to pull up behind the bus and drove off in a green Honda Civic to Madison, about 25 miles to the north, where they burglarized a house and stole a white Ford pickup truck from a quarry, authorities have said.

Two days later, they held a couple hostage during a violent home invasion in Shelbyville, Tennessee, and then fled in the couple’s Jeep and fired on sheriff’s deputies chasing them on Interstate 24 about 50 miles southeast of Nashville, authorities have said.

The chase ended when the pair crashed the SUV, ran through some trees, climbed over a fence and surrendered to a homeowner.