North Carolina inmate escape: Convicted child killer captured at hotel after 3-day manhunt | Video

Ramone Alston killed 1-year-old girl in 2015

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Friday, August 16, 2024
Convicted child killer captured at hotel after 3-day manhunt
Ramone Alston, an inmate who escaped a medical facility in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was found after a 3-day manhunt.

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. -- Convicted murderer Ramone Alston has finally been captured after a three-day manhunt. According to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, Alston was captured shortly before 2 a.m. Friday at a hotel near Charlotte.

Keith Acree with the NCDOAC said Alston was taken into custody with the help of agents with the FBI Charlotte SWAT team, Kannapolis, North Carolina police and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers. No one was injured.

A woman identified as Jacobia Crisp was also arrested in Alamance County, North Carolina and charged with felony aiding and abetting a fugitive.

Alston escaped from correctional officers Tuesday morning, as he was arriving for an appointment at a Hillsborough, North Carolina hospital. Since then, hundreds of law enforcement and public safety officials were involved in the search for him.

Alston will be charged with felony escape from prison, and is being taken to a high-security unit in the state prison system to continue serving his life sentence for first-degree murder in the 2015 death of 1-year-old Maleah Williams in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Who is Ramone Alston?

Alston was convicted of shooting and killing 1-year-old Maleah Williams on Christmas Day in 2015. Williams' mother told ABC Raleigh-Durham affiliate WTVD then that the children were outside playing with their Christmas toys, and she was holding her daughter when someone started firing shots in the area. She was running from the area when she realized a bullet had struck Williams.

Maleah Williams was 1 year old.
Maleah Williams was 1 year old.
Courtesy of family

WTVD uncovered that Alston recently tried to get his sentence lightened. Records show Alston filed a motion for appropriate relief in October 2023.

The 20-page document goes through the evidence and facts of his case. In the document, Alston claims the state used misleading evidence in its case. The motion was denied in May, with a judge saying Alston had a fair, full hearing and the claims in the motion for appropriate relief lacked merit.