In the early morning hours of June 13, 2017, Curtis Bernard Billue, a 58-year-old corrections officer, was co-piloting a Georgia Department of Corrections transport bus in Putnam County. Alongside his colleague, Sergeant Christopher Monica, he was responsible for the transfer of 33 inmates. The journey took a tragic turn when two inmates, Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe, managed to free themselves from their restraints, breach a locked gate on the bus, and overpower the officers.
Dubose, according to prosecutors, then used one of the officers' own firearms to fatally shoot both Sergeant Monica and Sergeant Billue.
Following the deadly assault, Dubose and Rowe fled the scene, carjacking a nearby vehicle and sparking a massive, multi-day manhunt that drew national attention. Their time on the run was marked by a series of additional crimes, including tying up an elderly couple and stealing their vehicle in Shelbyville, Tennessee. The pursuit came to a dramatic end in Rutherford County, Tennessee, when the fugitives, after a high-speed chase and a crash, were cornered by a homeowner who held them at gunpoint until law enforcement arrived.
The legal process that followed saw both men facing murder charges. Donnie Rowe was the first to be tried. In September 2021, a jury found him guilty of murder. However, the jury could not unanimously agree on a death sentence, resulting in a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ricky Dubose's trial took place in June 2022. He was found guilty of murder, and unlike in Rowe's case, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. A judge subsequently sentenced Dubose to death for his role in the killings of Sergeant Curtis Billue and Sergeant Christopher Monica.
