(NewsNation) — The friend of an escaped Georgia inmate claims the fugitive, Joey Fournier, threatened to kill him on the same night he is accused of killing another woman.
Cody, a friend of Fournier who’s only using his first name to protect his family, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that Fournier called him asking for a ride the night he allegedly strangled his ex-girlfriend Cynthia Berry to death.
“I went and picked him up. As soon as he got in the truck, he pulled a gun on me and said ‘Hey, you’re gonna take me where I need to go or I’m gonna kill you,'” Cody said Tuesday on “CUOMO.”
Cody says he took Fournier to a piece of land in Mock, Georgia, where Fournier frequently hunted.
“On the way there, I kept asking if we could pull over for gas, I was gonna try to get out of the truck, get out, get away from the situation, he never would let me. He pretty much disclosed that he was gonna kill me once we got there and then kill himself,” Cody said. “We got we got near the property, I started slowing down at the entrance, he opened the (car) door, as soon as he went to take a step out, I just hit the gas, pretty much sent him down the road, and I never looked back.”
The other inmates who escaped from the Bibb County Detention Center in central Georgia last week are Marc Kerry Anderson, 24, who was being held for aggravated assault; Johnifer Dernard Barnwell, 37, who was being detained for the U.S. Marshals Service; and Chavis Demaryo Stokes, 29, who was held for firearm possession and drug trafficking.
The men, who escaped through a damaged window and a cut fence, are considered dangerous.
Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies previously said surveillance video shows a blue Dodge Challenger pull up to the jail and help the men flee around 3 a.m. Oct. 16. The footage also shows someone near the fence line tampering with it, and they appear to have left behind tools used to aid the escape.
As police continued their search Tuesday, authorities say a Georgia man died after he wounded himself when police officers appeared at his door to question him about the four escaped inmates.
Bibb County deputies said Christian Demond Williams, 23, died Tuesday morning at a Macon hospital. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force found Williams at a Macon apartment after investigators got a tip that he might have information about the four fugitives.
Additionally, Bibb County deputies said another man has been arrested in a car theft believed to be connected to the jailbreak. Police arrested Jakaylen Billy Ray Williams, charging him with auto theft, saying he stole a Dodge Challenger from a rental car agency Oct. 9.
Video showed the Challenger just outside the jail on the night of the escape and appeared to show someone tampering with the fence. That person then brought some items into the enclosed area, and Bibb County Sheriff David Davis has said investigators believe the items were used to help the men escape.
Cody believes it’s more likely that Fournier would have killed himself than still be on the run, based on comments that Fournier made during the night of the alleged killing of Berry.
“I mean, he was a smart guy, so he could have skipped town, but the way that he has said before, and the way that the cops said when he got arrested, I mean he was put on suicide watch in the prison,” Cody said. “I don’t think that he’s gonna go back.”
Georgia officials, along with the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Office, are conducting the search for the inmates.
Police are urging anyone with information about the escapees to call the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
