Jaqarius Foxhall was on bond, charged with fatally shooting a relative in the head, when he was arrested this month for shooting at another man.
The teen was just the most recent example in which a defendant, charged with a violent crime, committed a new crime while on bail.
Some of these defendants were charged with murder then were charged with another drug or violent crime. Others were charged with a drug or lesser violent crime before being charged with murder.
Foxhall is one of four charged with murderthis year who reoffended while on bail and those four add to a growing list from the past several years, Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said earlier this month.
"It's a problem, and the only solution I see is raising the bail amount higher," Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said earlier this month.
Bailey, who fought successfully to have the state bail schedule for murder charges increased from $75,000 to $150,000, said the answer is to increase the limit again and increase those for other crimes. Micah West, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said bail should depend on the individual person instead of a blanket range.
"No one is saying no one should be detained, but pretrial decision making should be more rational and based on whether someone is truly dangerous," West said.
More times than not, West said, bail penalizes those who cannot afford to pay the required amount attached to their crime by a judge or magistrate.
"A person who can pay for their freedom is released regardless if they're dangerous," the attorney said.
A history of violent crimes
Maurice McAdory wascharged with murder and attempted murder in a Selma homicide case andwas initially given a $2 million combined bond. A Selma judge later reduced his bond to $15,000 in June 2017. Less than a year later,while on bond,McAdory was charged with robbery in Montgomery after a carjacking on Carter Hill Road.
More:Selma murder suspect charged in Montgomery carjacking
Jason McWilliams was out on a $200,000 bond in connection to the 2013Centennial Hill Bar and Grill shooting when he was charged with possession of marijuana and controlled substances. Prior to his drug arrest, prosecutors moved to have McWilliams' bond revoked when a video was posted to social media allegedly showing him pointing a gun at a woman.
More:Final Centennial Hill shooter pleads guilty
Dvonte Flonnoy, the alleged shooter in the 2015 Club Big Boyz homicide, was released on a $150,000 bond. About two months later, Flonnoy was charged with marijuana possession and was again released on bond, according to court records. About a year after his arrest on the reckless murder charge, he was shot and killed in November2016 on Carmichael Road.
More:Alleged Club Big Boyz shooter shot, killed
Foxhall was charged with reckless murder in the death of a relative in January and was later released on a $150,000 bond, according to court records. Earlier this month, the teen was charged with second-degree assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle after a man was shot in the neck.
Prosecutors filed a motion to revoke Foxhall's bond on the murder charge, but the presiding district judge declined to rule on the motion because the case had been sent to a grand jury, according to court records.
More:Teen out on murder bond charged with assault in Ann Street shooting
A separate district judge scheduled a hearing Friday to hear all pending motions regarding Foxhall's case.
Leviticus Fuller, Quartez Luster and Courtney Morris were all on bond on other crimes when they were each charged with murder earlier this year.
Each of the men were given a bond either at or above the maximum amount listed for murder charges, according to court records, but that wasn't enough to keep them from reoffending and in Flonnoy's case being killed before he could face trial.
Bailey saidhis hands are often tied when it comes to violent offenders and their bail.
"All of these folks were entitled to bail under the law," he said. "The only thing we can do, and we do quite often, is argue for excessive bail on people we deem to be violent. Then the only thing we can do is if they commit another crime on bail is that we move to revoke the previous bail."
The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office did just that in McWilliams', Flonnoy's and Foxhall's cases. A Dallas County judge granted aprosecutor's motion to revoke McAdory's bond in the murder and attempted murder cases after he was charged in Montgomery with robbery, according to court records.
McWilliams and Flonnoy were eventually granted a bond, again, before one pleaded guilty and the other one was shot to death.
There's not much prosecutor's can do in that case, Bailey said.
"It's a very reactive system," Bailey said. "But, unfortunately, there is nothing we can do because they have a constitutional right to bail."
That constitutional right is unfair, though, West said.
"We need a more rational bail system. It's important these decisions are more accurate and less arbitrary," he said.
West said the money bail system persists because there is a perception it keeps defendants accountable for future court dates and keeps violent offenders in jail.
"Detaining someone pretrialundermines public safety," he said. "It increases the likelihood someone will reoffend because incarcerating someone is so traumatic and often has a negative side effects like unemployment andloss of income."
Instead, West said judges and magistrates should hold fact-finding hearings about each defendant before assigning them a bail amount.
"Judges should be looking at that person holistically," he said. "If someone is dangerous they shouldn't be released, but those who aren't should be allowed to work and provide for their loved ones."
West argued if those hearings were happening, more people charged with lesser crimes, non-violent crimes, could be released on more reasonable bonds or by their own recognizance.
"If a judge is going to set bail beyond what a person can afford, thejudge needs to know that's what he or she is doing," West said. "If a judge finds the person is dangerous, they can set the bail above what is attainable. Judge shouldn't be shooting in the dark. Itshould be tied to individual circ*mstances and what they can afford."
The end of cash bail?
West's ideology is not a new concept. California on Tuesday became the first state to outlaw cash bail, following an example set by Washington, D.C. The California law will instead set up a system by which local courts can assess a defendant's probability of showingup for their court date, the seriousness of their crime, and the likelihood of recidivism.
On the national level, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders filed legislation in July that would end cash bail in federal cases, but also create incentives for states to find and implement alternatives to cash bail at the local level.
Bailey, though, says it would be hard to screen first-time offenders.
"The people who are committing these crimes that the Legislature has deemed as less important, the Class D felonies,are eventually graduating to be violent offenders," he said.
Aaron Starks Jr.was accused of stealing more than $6,500 worth of cell phones from the UPS on Jackson Ferry Road in October and was on bond when he was charged in May with assault. Starksallegedlyshot the victim in the face with birdshot, causing the victim to lose an eye.
More:Man charged in April Debby Drive shooting
Further, Bailey said, defendants charged with robbery are often given $60,000 bonds, less than half of that for a murder charge.
"There has been a movement in our state, I think,to not treat robbery cases as serious as they are," he said. "It's one click away from murder. Most of our capital murders are capital because there is a robbery involved."
People who are charged with murder and other violent crimes are frequently involved in other criminal enterprises, Bailey said, even if they've not been charged with such.
"They're often involved in things that put them in a position of affluence," he said, and there's no system in place to check if the money or property being used to post the 10 percent bond was acquired legally.
That reasoning,in part, is why Bailey thinks the bail schedule should be tweaked.
"If you're asking for what I wish,I wish if you committed a murder you're not eligible for bail at all, but I would be satisfied if we just increased it to even a higher amount than $150,000," he said.
But he wouldn't stop there.
"I think the whole thing needs to be looked at," Bailey said of other violent crimes such as rape, robbery, assault and domestic violence."We're on one end asking for bail amounts to be raise and then you've got this other end saying we shouldn't even have it. It's not an easy argument to settle."
