NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A juvenile offender from New Orleans who escaped from a non-secure facility in Lake Charles last month has been arrested Monday (Oct. 2) in Texas after a nearly three-week search, the US Marshals Service told Fox 8.
Lynell Reynolds, an 18-year-old who was adjudicated guilty of attempted second-degree murder in 2019 when he was 13, was arrested in the San Antonio area. Reynolds was found guilty of shooting Darrelle Scott during a 2019 armed robbery in New Orleans East, leaving Scott paralyzed and wheelchair-bound.
“I was very happy, relieved, and I cried just to know that he was captured,” said Dorothy White, Scott’s grandmother. “I immediately called Darrelle, my grandson, to tell him that Lynell was captured. I mean, he had a big sigh of relief.”
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams praised the recapture of Reynolds, and said that a “second individual” had been detained in New Orleans in connection with the fugitive’s escape from the state. No arrest of that person has been announced.
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“It’s been a lot of relief for all of our family,” White said.
Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Candice Anderson initially sentenced Reynolds to confinement in a state juvenile facility until he turns 21. But in February 2022, Anderson approved Reynolds’ transfer to a group home facility.
Williams said last week that prosecutors from his office objected to the transfer, as did Scott’s family.
“Nothing in his disciplinary record suggested that there was a reason to diverge from the full sentence of serving it as he should have been serving it,” Williams said. “He has not rehabilitated himself.”
Scott last month learned that Reynolds escaped from that facility Sept. 13, though he wasn’t notified for nine days.
Louisiana’s Office of Juvenile Justice never responded to questions about Reynolds’ escape from Fox 8. No information about the search for the juvenile gunman came for nearly two weeks until a brief statement was sent to Fox 8′s sister station in Lake Charles.
“The Office of Juvenile Justice would like to assure the public that all legal measures were taken by the agency to notify the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, the youth’s attorney and the youth’s caregiver of the escape from the non-secure placement,” the statement said in part.
But Williams said the OJJ violated, at minimum, the spirit of the law surrounding juvenile escapees.
“The largest and most looming issue is of OJJ in this particular situation,” he said.
Williams said in a statement Monday night that his office “is endeavoring to create legislation requiring statewide alerts for escaped inmates, regardless of where they are housed. These alerts are especially critical in the jurisdictions where the crime occurred and where victims reside.”
Reynolds is being held in Bexar County, Texas, until he can be extradited.
“To a large degree, they’re looking out for the perpetrators more than they’re looking out for the victims,” said Patrick Dennis, a victim of a separate crime involving juveniles.
Dennis said he was held up outside of his St. Charles Avenue home in December 2021.
The gunman, a teen at the time, walked free from Judge Anderson’s courtroom. Dennis said he wasn’t notified and failed to show up to testify against him.
“I think the system is broken. There’s no communication, and I don’t think the judges are being held accountable at all,” Dennis said. “The judges are hiding behind the juvenile justice center and the inability to give out information because they’re juveniles. They’re hiding behind that. And therefore, there is no accountability on anybody’s part in the criminal justice system.”
Anderson has not responded to Fox 8′s requests for an interview. Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office also did not respond when Fox 8 sought to ask about OJJ’s transparency and lack of communication with the media and public.
Dennis and White agreed Reynolds should not have been allowed into an unsecure group home, called a “step down” facility.
“The perpetrators need to be held accountable, their parents need to be held accountable, and right now our system is not doing it,” Dennis said. “These are serious, serious crimes, and there is no accountability for it.”
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