Clayton inmate released by mistake joins long list of similar Georgia cases

January 2024

Zion River Shaka, a murder suspect, was released after being transferred from the Fulton County Jail to the Clayton jail for a court hearing in a separate matter.

The Clayton sheriff’s office was supposed to return Shaka to Fulton after the hearing, officials said, but that never happened. Shaka, who had been indicted on a murder charge in 2021, was arrested again in June.

His Fulton court case appears open, and he still faces murder charges.

November 2022

Kaiser Ulrick Suggs, another murder suspect in Fulton, was transferred to the Clayton jail to answer to aggravated assault charges that were ultimately dismissed, the sheriff’s office said. He was originally arrested in April 2021 in Fulton and charged with multiple counts, including murder, home invasion and burglary, according to online jail records.

Suggs was mistakenly released instead of being transferred back to Fulton, where his murder case is progressing through the court system. In February 2023, Suggs turned himself in, officials said.

He was later convicted of aggravated assault.

October 2019

Tony Maycon Munoz-Mendez, who was convicted of raping a child, was mistakenly released from Rogers State Prison in Reidsville. At the time, officials did not say what led to his release, only stating that it was “in error,” the AJC reported.

Munoz-Mendez had been found guilty of rape and aggravated child molestation in the abuse of a 7-year-old girl in Gwinnett County. He was serving three life sentences.

He was arrested a few days later in Kentucky.

August 2019

Justin Jackson, accused of kidnapping, rape and torture, walked out of the Fulton County Jail. It forced his terrified victim into protective custody for the nearly three weeks Jackson spent as a free man before turning himself back in.

The jail blamed the mistaken release on a missing electronic document, the AJC reported at the time. The district attorney’s office said the jail misinterpreted the record.

Jackson was convicted on nine charges, including rape, kidnapping and cruelty to children, after he pleaded guilty to torturing his victim for hours with a knife, hammer and a hot iron in a bathtub until she passed out multiple times, police records detailed. She escaped two days later when he left to go to church.

Jackson is serving a 25-year sentence in state prison.

February 2018

Javoris Hurston, convicted of voluntary manslaughter, was mistakenly released from the DeKalb County Jail. Upon his conviction in Fulton, he was transferred to DeKalb to face aggravated assault charges that were dropped during a hearing, so officials incorrectly let him go.

He was back in custody a few days later and is serving his 20-year sentence in state prison.

November 2012

Joel Ledarius Harper, convicted of armed robbery and aggravated assault, was released from the DeKalb County Jail because of an administrative error. He had been sentenced to 10 years.

Over a week later, he was taken back in custody following a three-hour SWAT standoff that ended when police forced entry and found him hiding in a bedroom closet.

Harper has since been released from state prison after serving his sentence.

These are just a few examples of inmates who were released by mistake, but inmates across Georgia have escaped from jail or prison numerous times. A 2017 investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for example, found that between 2009 and 2017, more than 800 so-called “escapes” were recorded by the state Department of Corrections.

Nearly 90% involved inmates assigned to halfway houses as they prepared for release from state custody, simply not returning from work or some other appointment. More than half are back behind bars within days.