A grieving mother was left “heartbroken” after her husband’s alleged killer was released from jail due to a “typo”.
Amarion Sanders, 22, was being held on $1 million bail in the Cuyahoga County Jail in Ohio ahead of his August trial for the September 2023 murder of 39-year-old Derek Driskill.
But he was released Monday night after his case was “inadvertently dismissed” in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court documents, prompting multiple law enforcement agencies to search the city of Cleveland and bring him back after the bars. Fox 8 reports.
“Unfortunately, due to a typographical error by the court, the defendant was released from the county jail where he had been held because he was unable to post bail,” a judge wrote in court documents.
Amarion Sanders, 22, was “inadvertently” released from jail Monday night
Sanders is accused of killing Derek Driskill, 39, in a fender-bender accident in September.
Court officials later explained that another case with a similar number should have been dismissed.
“In this case, criminal cases with consecutive case numbers… were randomly assigned to the same judge at arraignment, which is rare with 34 judges on the bench,” the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas said in a statement to Fox 8, noting “We deeply regret the error.”
“If the cases had been in different files, the system would have flagged the error when it was entered.”
Jail officials said they also did not realize there was any problem with the release order.
“Cases are dismissed all the time, defendants are released every day. There was no reason to question it,” said Deputy Director Kevin O’Donnell. Cleveland 19 said.
Instead, prosecutors did not realize the mistake until Tuesday morning and immediately alerted court officials.
Driskill’s wife said she doesn’t understand how the court could have made a mistake.
But Andrea Johnson, Driskill’s wife, said she doesn’t understand how the court could have made such a mistake.
“I honestly don’t understand how that happens,” she told Fox 8. “I understand that humans make mistakes, but you’d think there’s more than one person that something like this happens to.”
She added that she doesn’t think it was “fair” for her husband’s alleged killer to be released.
“That’s not justice, that’s not our family feeling safe,” Johnson said. “I mean he’s on the street and he can do it to someone else.”
Driskill was shot in the head after a car hit him in the parking lot of a takeout restaurant.
Johnson said his family did not feel safe with the alleged killer on the loose.
Police have said Driskill died in an argument following a fender-bender in the parking lot of a takeout restaurant on Sept. 23, 2023.
A car crashed into the back of his Mercedes Benz, and although the driver was cooperative, a passenger inside the vehicle began arguing with Driskill and shot him in the head before fleeing, Fox 8 reports.
“Obviously it broke my heart, but I thought he was going to be OK, but he died two days later,” Johnson said.
Sanders later turned himself in and was charged with aggravated murder, two counts of murder and two counts of felonious assault. according to WKYC.
Sanders was taken back into custody Wednesday morning after being arrested during a morning traffic stop.
Sanders was taken back into custody Wednesday after U.S. Marshals arrested him in a morning traffic stop. the News-Herald reports.
He will now be transported to the Cuyahoga County Correctional Facility for booking and housing.
“He is no longer a threat and he never was a threat to society,” acting Corrections Chief Nestor Rivera told Cleveland 19.
But both court and jail officials say they will now work to make sure nothing like this happens again.
The Cuyahoga County Court will review its procedures and work with the Sheriff’s Department, while Associate Director O’Donnell said jail officials “are going to work collectively to try to (I don’t want to say right) but examine the process and make sure This will never happen again.’
