BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) continues its hunt for a fugitive who escaped from Dixon Correctional Institute on Thanksgiving morning. The Department has reason to believe the escapee is no longer in the Baton Rouge area and has called off its local manhunt and is focusing regionally for the wanted inmate. The DPS&C is working with its law enforcement partners across the south in hopes of capturing 23-year-old Shwilliam Cheevis. He is 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighs 138 pounds.
Cheevis is currently serving time for September 18, 2019, sentences out of Caddo Parish including Aggravated 2nd Degree Battery - 5 years, and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon - 10 years. Both sentences are being served consecutively. He was transferred to Dixon Correctional Institute from Claiborne Detention Center on March 22, 2021, and was a trustee. He was previously on two years probation with the Department of Public Safety and Corrections in 2018 for an Illegal use of a Weapon conviction out of Caddo Parish.
The DPS&C is asking anyone with knowledge of Cheevis' whereabouts to contact Dixon Correctional Institute at 225-634-6000.