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AMITE CITY, La. (WVUE) - A Tangipahoa Parish jail leader told Fox 8 an escape route in and out of the facility went uninvestigated for at least three months.

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief of Administration Jimmy Travis said inmate Avery Guidry broke out of the jail on Feb. 22 -- then successfully broke back in hours later.

“He had broken out, went to the Burger King, contacted his parents to come get him,” Travis said. “They begged and pleaded with him on the phone, ‘Go back to the jail, go back to the jail.’

“Well, he went back to the jail. But he used the same escape route to get back in.”

Travis said he only learned of the February escape after Guidry and three others broke out again in late May, using the same route.

“During the Guidry escape, and after the escape, it was learned, one of our lieutenants come forward and says, ‘Well, he escaped back in February and then he broke back in.’ And we were like, ‘What?’” he said.

The escape route was described in May as a hole in a corroded piece of chain-link fence, under an 8-inch gap in a wall, and the scaling of two razor-wire fences.

Travis said several jail officers -- including former Warden Heath Martin -- were aware of the February escape but failed to address the problem.

“I don’t know (why the route wasn’t fixed),” Travis said. “I don’t think they believed it happened. But we were able to go back, administratively, after we heard about it, pull 911 tapes from the 911 building, pull cameras that showed him coming out from under the gate, going over a series of fences. And then a couple hours later, the opposite direction, and going back under the gate and getting back in.”

He later said “(Guidry) was back in the jail, and that was it.”

Travis said he was not aware of any other escapes from the route and said it’s unclear when the route was created.

“I don’t know if any discipline was done,” Travis said. “I don’t know of any actions that was taken. I know that some of those individuals are no longer here, no longer with the jail. They’ve been transferred to other positions.”

Travis said Martin had been reassigned to a different role in the sheriff’s office two weeks after the May escapes. Sheriff Daniel Edwards did not respond to Fox 8′s requests to interview him or Martin.

Travis said an arrest warrant has not been executed for the February escape. The Tangipahoa Parish Clerk of Court’s Office said Guidry’s public defender filings only reflect one escape charge.

Guidry was being held in connection to the 2022 murder of Donta Perry and the shooting of his daughter. He escaped in May with two others also allegedly connected to the incident. All three were recaptured in the days following their May escapes. But the fourth inmate, Jamarcus Cyprian, remains at large.

Kiera Perry is the first cousin of Donta Perry and expressed frustration at the news.

“That’s not acceptable at all,” Perry said. “I mean, they should have done their job in the beginning ... they would have never escaped. But by them knowing he escaped the first time, they should have told us as the family.”

The jail has a history of escapes and state records show the Department of Corrections warning the jail about staff training in 2023.

Metropolitan Crime Commission president Rafael Goyeneche also called the situation “unacceptable.”

“Did (Guidry) do anything on the outside? Because if he’s in custody, leaves custody and comes back, he’s got a perfect alibi: ‘I’m in jail,’” Goyeneche said.

Travis said he oversees new Warden Jerry Martin and the jail. The jail has installed new razor wire and Travis said a new training program is being created.

The Louisiana Department of Corrections is investigating what happened in the May escapes.

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