A Georgia jail let a convicted killer walk free last week after Fulton County failed to send the disposition papers over to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.
The release of Javoris Hurston was an accident, but the jail says no disciplinary charges will be filed for the mistake since no procedural errors were made by its employees, WSB-TV 2 in Atlanta reported.
The error was uncovered after Hurston had been free for two days when the murder victim’s family happened upon Hurston on the streets and called officials questioning his release.
Last June, Hurston plead guilty to manslaughter in Fulton County for the murder of 51-year-old Barry Hawkins, who was shot to death on Ira Street in Atlanta in May 2015.
Hurston received a 20-year prison sentence, but returned to DeKalb to face the aggravated assault charges. When those charges were dropped on Feb. 15 in DeKalb County, he was set free.
The jail said it didn’t know Hurston had recently pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Fulton County.
Hurston was put back in the Fulton County Jail after two days of freedom by a fugitive task force and is awaiting transfer to state prison.
“Sounds like somebody didn’t relay the right information or didn’t look,” one DeKalb County resident told Channel 2’s Tom Jones.
“So, there’s a murderer on the street again,” one resident asked.
“I don’t know this family, but I sympathize with them,” said a mother who also lost a son to murder.
