Macon mom accused of helping son escape arrest worked as director at Mercer

The Macon mother who turned herself in to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday morning for helping her son escape police worked at Mercer University.

Toyann Mason, 47, worked as the university’s director of financial planning for the Regional Academic Centers and Atlanta Undergraduate Programs, according to the university’s website.

Mason is listed as the director of Regional Academic Center and Student Employment in the university’s online directory.

On Mason’s LinkedIn page, she has her job title as senior associate director of Student Employment.

A Mercer spokesman confirmed Mason’s employment with the university, but declined to comment.

She is charged with aiding or permitting another to escape lawful custody, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

Toyann Mason learned that her son, Austin Mason, 21, had arrest warrants for simple battery family violence in September 2019.

During that same month, Austin was in the hospital receiving treatment for a gunshot wound. Before he could be arrested, Toyann checked him out of the hospital against a doctor’s orders in order to get him out of Bibb County, the release stated.

As of Tuesday morning, Toyann did not have a bond, according to the release.

Austin was arrested on a murder charge Jan. 30, according to a previous Telegraph report.

When Bibb Sheriff’s deputies and U.S. Marshals for the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrived at Austin’s home Jan. 30, he fled, but he was taken into custody after a brief foot chase near his home on the 4300 block of Pinedale Drive.

He was charged in the killing of 30-year-old Shakema Dickson at her Pio Nono Circle home Nov. 7. Dickson’s 2-year-old daughter was also shot, but the child survived.