NC inmate fled custody over unfair life sentence in baby’s murder, attorney says
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- Ramone Alston pleaded guilty to escape and was sentenced to 20 to 39 months.
- Alston escaped the prison transport van outside UNC Hospitals on Aug. 13, 2024.
- FBI, Charlotte SWAT and local police captured Alston three days later in Kannapolis.
A convicted murderer got a few more years tacked onto his life sentence Monday for escaping from a prison van outside UNC Hospitals in Hillsborough nearly two years ago.
Ramone Alston fled custody on Aug. 13, 2024, “to call attention to injustices” that landed him a life sentence in the 2015 murder of a Chapel Hill toddler, his attorney Gina Balamucki said.
He “always expected to be taken back into custody,” she said.
Alston was one of three men charged in the Christmas Day drive-by shooting of 14-month-old Maleah Williams. About 20 people, including eight children, were outside a Chapel Hill apartment complex when Maleah was shot. She died three days later.
Alston, who drove the car, and a passenger Pierre Je Bron Moore were accused of shooting into the crowd. Alston’s attorneys argued most of the witnesses only reported seeing one man fire shots. Moore pleaded guilty in 2019 to second-degree murder.
A third defendant had his charges dismissed.
On Monday, Alston, now 32, pleaded guilty to escape from a state prison and was sentenced to another 20 to 39 months in prison. A charge of assault on a government official was dismissed in 2024.
“He apologized to the community, to his family, and also to the family of [Maleah Williams] for any fear and disruption that his escape might have caused them,” Balamucki said.
Superior Court Judge Alyson Grine tacked the new sentence onto the end of Alston’s life sentence. He is not eligible for parole under state law.
Alston thinks the life sentence in the murder is unfair and has appealed his conviction and filed motions for judicial relief, said Balamucki, who did not represent him in the 2015 case. He did not “try to evade justice and escape this life sentence,” she said.
“When I look at him, I see someone who was convicted of a life sentence at the age of 24. I understand that he wasn’t alleged to be the shooter, and that that’s just really hard,” she said. “Obviously, what happened to the victim in that case is horrific, and a life sentence for 24-year-olds is another kind of tragedy.”
District attorney responds to claims
Alston is now housed in the Granville Correctional Institution — the state’s highest security unit — where his corrections record shows he has 20 infractions, including lock tampering last year.
Escaping from prison, diverting law enforcement resources and alarming the public are not appropriate ways to address concerns about the legal system, Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman said Wednesday. He rejected Alston’s claims about the 2015 case, noting both an appeals court and a Superior Court judge have reviewed and rejected alleged errors in the trial.
“He had a two-week trial before a jury. The jury deliberated for several days. They came back with a unanimous verdict. That verdict has been upheld at every appellate level,” said Nieman, who was the prosecutor in the 2015 case.
“I’ll stand on the record as far as whether or not the apparatuses that are in place to allow an allegation of an unfair trial have been fully exhausted,” he said.
How did Ramone Alston escape?
Alston’s escape made headlines that summer and locked down parts of Hillsborough as local, state and federal law enforcement tracked him in the woods and fanned out across the region.
The case prompted a state review that recommended several changes to how medical care and appointments for inmates are handled. It also called for an in-depth review of prisoner transport policies and procedures.
Alston and two guards left Bertie Correctional Institution around 3:30 a.m. Aug. 13, arriving in Hillsborough for his appointment a few hours later.
Alston removed his leg shackles while inside the N.C. Department of Adult Correction prison transport van and jumped out in the parking lot, knocking a guard to the ground, corrections officials said. He fled into the woods still wearing handcuffs.
Someone matching Alston’s description was seen getting into a dark-colored car on Old N.C. 10 shortly after the escape, a search warrant said.
Alston later left the area heading to Charlotte in a Dodge Journey that was registered to his mother, search warrants said.
Accomplice sentenced, sister cleared
Alston got help from Jacobia Crisp, a Burlington woman with whom he had a relationship, investigators said. Crisp told them after her arrest that an unknown woman called her saying Alston needed help. She found him at Atrium Hospital near UNC Charlotte.
Investigators think she knew about the escape plan, according to search warrants, and documented over 1,600 calls between Crisp and Alston on a “burner phone” that he illegally possessed in prison between July 1 and Aug. 13, 2024. A 20-minute call took place between them right before Alston left for Hillsborough, it says.
Alston was still wearing handcuffs when Crisp found him struggling to crank the Dodge Journey in Charlotte, she told investigators. In panic and frustration, Alston kicked out the driver’s side window, she said, and climbed out through it before leaving with Crisp.
Phone records show Crisp helped Alston evade capture by moving him to different hotel rooms that she reserved and paid for in Kannapolis, northeast of Charlotte, investigators said. A texting app showed her traveling multiple times to and from the area after Alston’s escape and around checkout time at the hotels, a warrant says.
A tipster who recognized Alston from a news alert and talked to him at one of the hotels alerted law enforcement after Alston asked him “for cigarettes and drugs,” another warrant says.
FBI agents, Charlotte SWAT officers, and Kannapolis and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers captured Alston three days after his escape at a Kannapolis hotel.
Crisp pleaded guilty last year to aiding an escape from prison and felony harboring an escapee. She was sentenced to eight to 28 months in prison. A third charge of obstructing justice was dismissed, court documents show.
Alston’s sister Monique Brady was initially charged with felony aid and abet and harboring an escapee, but those charges were dismissed in 2024. Additional charges of obstructing justice, providing tools for escape, and aiding an escape from prison were dismissed Monday, records show.
A court document said those charges were dismissed because Alston pleaded guilty.
That’s not unusual, Nieman said. Assistant District Attorney Anna Orr, who prosecuted both cases, had to make a decision based on the available evidence and whether Brady could get a successful outcome at trial, he added, declining to elaborate.
Brady said her brother wanted to go to trial and tell his side of the story about the 2018 conviction. But he took a plea deal, because he knew he would be found guilty anyway and due to the hardship that she was facing from her charges, she said by phone Wednesday.
She contends she was not involved in his escape, but lost her job because of it and has struggled to get a new job due to the pending charges and the publicity generated by the story.
“I feel like my evidence, if looked at through a non-biased lens, would have supported my dismissal,” she said.
This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 9:41 AM with the headline "NC inmate fled custody over unfair life sentence in baby’s murder, attorney says."
CORRECTION: A previous version of the story was updated on June 3, 2026, to remove details about the charges filed against Monique Brady that have been dismissed.
