Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Another failure of our court system

A 28 year old man was recently arrested for murder in Osceola county, after a 56 year old man was shot and killed. I looked up his record with Osceola county, and he didn't have one. Now it is pretty unusual for the first crime committed by a person to be murder, so I went looking in Orange county (where Orlando is located).

In Orange county alone, he has been charged on 28 different occasions, beginning in 2006, when he was just 14 years old and was caught driving without a license. I wouldn't normally mentiosn traffic, except in this case because adjudication was withheld.

2008, he was arrested for armed robbery with a firearm, tampering with evidence, and possession of a firearm by a minor. He was placed on probation.

2014, he was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Charges were dropped because the prosecutor said the case was "unsuitable for prosecution." However this resulted in his being violated under the terms of the probation from his 2008 robbery, and was sentenced to 4 years in jail.

This obviously didn't mean that he actually went to jail, because during 2014, he was arrested for domestic battery. The DA dropped the charges.

During 2014 and 2015, he received 7 traffic tickets for open alcohol container, no seatbelt, no drivers license, speeding and no registration in multiple different traffic stops. Case was dismissed or adjudication withheld each time.

In August of 2015, he was arrested for possession of controlled substances and marijuana with intent to distribute. Adjudication was withheld.

In 2016 and 2017, he received 9 traffic tickets during 4 different traffic stops: speeding, no insurance, no seatbelt, no tags, no registration, etc. 3 were for running tolls, 2 for improper tags, and there was also a couple of red lights, speeding, and another minor one. He paid a few fines.

In 2018, he was caught with cocaine (more than 28 grams), marijuana (more than 20 grams),  $19,500 in cash, and charged with 11 counts of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon. Sheriff Demings proceeded with an asset forfeiture in that case, taking the cash. Again, however, the DA dropped the charges because the case was not suitable for prosecution. 

Just after that, he was again arrested for domestic battery. Charges were dropped. Again.

In 2019, he was arrested for second degree murder for shooting and killing a motorist in the car next to him. He claimed that the other motorist was threatening him, and won his "stand your ground" hearing. Charges were dismissed. The police did however, manage to use civil forfeiture to take his car.

So in the past 14 years, he has been arrested on 5 different occasions for felonies, twice for domestic battery, twice for possession of a firearm by a felon, dealing drugs, murder, and yet was free to walk the streets and kill again. How many times must a person break the law before there are serious consequences?

* as a side note, this morning the article had over 13 comments on gun control, lax courts, etc. They were all deleted within the past two hours. The press has no right to claim a lack of bias.

1 comment:

Jonathan H said...

I don't think this is a "failure" - unfortunately, I think it is intentional on the part of liberal idiots who think that people aren't responsible for their own actions.