Five Charged in Connection With Perry County PREP Center Escape
Five people have been charged in connection with the escape of four inmates from the Perry County Correctional PREP Center in Uniontown early Saturday, including a Selma woman accused of driving to the facility to pick up the men and hiding them in her apartment afterward.
Two of the four escapees remain at large: Marquavious Billingsley, 24, a convicted murderer from Selma whose probation was being revoked, and Kevin Gunn, 19, of Dallas County, who is charged with armed robbery and possessing a machine gun conversion device.
Anyone with information is urged to call 911 and not to approach or attempt to apprehend them.
The other two escapees are back in custody.
Jaden Christopher Maxwell, 21, turned himself in Sunday night.
Johnny Dave Harris Bush Jr., 29, of Anniston, was arrested Sunday afternoon by Midfield Police during a traffic stop after officers identified a stolen vehicle using a license plate reader system. The vehicle had been reported stolen from a Selma restaurant.
Both Maxwell and Bush have been charged in Perry County District Court with first-degree escape.
Court records filed in both cases allege that during the breakout, each man employed physical force on a correctional officer, overpowering her to facilitate the escape.
Both are being held without bond.
Keivona Shabrion Lewis, 29, of Selma, has been charged with one count of permitting or aiding an escape in the first degree and four counts of first-degree hindering prosecution—one for each escapee.
She is being held without bond.
According to court records filed this week in Perry County District Court, the escape began at approximately 1:29 a.m. Saturday when the inmates staged a fake medical emergency inside the facility.
One of the men pretended to need medical attention. The group then forced its way through the center, overpowering a correctional officer in the process.
Lewis was waiting outside in a vehicle. The criminal complaint alleges she drove the four men from Uniontown to her apartment on Church Street in Selma, roughly 30 miles away, where each of the escapees changed clothes and hid from law enforcement.
Lewis was arrested within two hours of the escape, according to authorities.
For most of Saturday, the public knew nothing about the escape.
Independent journalist Robert Shepherd first reported via social media Saturday afternoon that four inmates had escaped. It was not until Saturday evening—hours after the breakout—that officials released the names and photographs of the four men.
The delay drew criticism from Perry County residents who were unaware that four inmates facing serious charges were at large in their community.
Three of the four escapees are unquestionably not participants in the PREP Center’s reentry program.
They are Dallas County Jail inmates housed at the state facility under a separate arrangement because the Dallas County Jail has been closed since an EF-2 tornado struck Selma in January 2023.
Court records reviewed by the Times-Standard-Herald show the three Dallas County inmates were facing serious violent felony charges.
Marquavious Billingsley, who remains at large, pleaded guilty to felony murder in Dallas County Circuit Court on Aug. 21, 2025, in connection with the May 30, 2018 shooting death of Kenbranesha Rayford on Marie Foster Street in Selma. He was 16 years old at the time of the offense.
Under a plea agreement, he was sentenced to 240 months split 60 months, with 60 months of probation. Because he had accumulated more than 79 months of jail credit by sentencing, he was released directly onto probation.
Less than four months later, on Dec. 3, 2025, Billingsley was charged with first-degree assault after Selma police alleged he and several others beat a man with a gun at a Selma housing complex. The victim was hospitalized with severe facial bruising.
In February 2026, the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles authorized his arrest for violating the conditions of his probation. He was held without bond.
The district attorney’s office then filed a motion to revoke Billingsley’s probation on the murder case, with a hearing set for May 28, two days before the escape.
If revoked, Billingsley faced up to 15 years of suspended prison time on the murder sentence alone.
His case history also includes five separate charges of promoting prison contraband.
Jaden Christopher Maxwell was awaiting trial on two separate attempted murder cases.
A Dallas County grand jury indicted him in July 2024 on two counts of attempted murder and two counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle in connection with a March 2024 shooting.
A second grand jury indicted him in March 2025 on a third count of attempted murder in connection with a separate shooting in December 2024.
Both cases had been set for jury trial on Aug. 3, 2026.
Maxwell now faces the additional first-degree escape charge in Perry County.
Kevin Gunn, who also remains at large, was indicted in October 2025 on three felony charges:
- First-degree robbery for allegedly robbing a woman at gunpoint.
- Trafficking in stolen identities.
- Converting a pistol to a machine gun for possessing a firearm equipped with an auto-sear switch.
The robbery case was scheduled for trial on Oct. 5, 2026.
Johnny Dave Harris Bush Jr. is the only escapee whose profile appears consistent with the PREP Center’s stated mission.
His address is in Anniston, not Dallas County.
Alabama Department of Corrections records show he was convicted in Etowah County on charges including unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle and theft of property.
He was classified at the lowest custody level and had been on work release since at least 2023.
In addition to the Perry County escape charge, Bush faces charges in Dallas County and Jefferson County in connection with the stolen vehicle, according to the district attorney’s office.
The PREP Center (Parole and Probation Reentry Education and Employment Program) opened in April 2022 after Gov. Kay Ivey cut the ribbon on the converted facility.
The Legislature had appropriated $19 million in 2021 to purchase and renovate the former Perry County Correctional Facility, a privately operated 738-bed prison that had been largely vacant for years.
However, the facility has also housed Dallas County Jail inmates since the January 2023 tornado.
Ward told Alabama Daily News in December 2024 that Dallas County rents space at the facility, pays for food and utilities, and provides its own staffing. He described the Dallas County inmates as separate from the PREP program enrollees.
