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The suspect in a mass shooting in Alabama was handed a $60,000 bond while the recent arrest of a repeat offender in the attack of an elderly woman was ordered to stay behind bars until trial.
Clarke County District Attorney Stephen Winters said Brandon Pugh allegedly attacked a 75-year-old woman in her Grove Hill, Alabama home on Nov. 2 while she was asleep, according to WALA. The woman was able to escape and go to a neighbor’s house to call for police while Pugh was attempting to undress inside her home.
Pugh was convicted of indecent exposure three times. He also pleaded guilty to burglary in 2019 after he broke into a woman’s home and intended to sexually assault her and commit theft.
A judge ordered Pugh to be held in jail without bond under Aniah’s Law, which gives judges more authority to deny bail to people charged with serious crimes, such as murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, first-degree robbery and more. Pugh was charged with first-degree burglary and elder abuse.
ALABAMA SHOOTING SUSPECT WALKS FREE ON $60K BOND AS COMMUNITY DEMANDS HE STAY LOCKED UP
According to the report, a petition to keep Pugh locked up until his trial since it’s not his first serious offense.
Fox News Digital reached out to an attorney who last represented Pugh.
One of the suspects in an Oct. 4 mass shooting that took place following the Morehouse-Tuskegee Classic college football game in Montgomery, Alabama, was given a $60,000 bond. Montgomery Police Chief Jim Graboys said two people were killed and 12 were injured, adding that only one of the 14 victims was the intended target. He said there were multiple shooters.
The suspect, Javorick Whiting, 19, was arrested on Oct. 16 and charged with attempted murder in relation to the mass shooting. According to court documents, the person Whiting allegedly shot was last reported in critical condition.
MASS SHOOTING SUSPECT REMAINS FREE ON $60K BOND AS JUDGE REJECTS PLEA TO INCREASE AMOUNT AMID PUBLIC OUTRAGE
After Whiting was taken into custody, a judge set bond at $60,000, which Whiting was able to post on Oct. 17 through a bail bond company, court records obtained by Fox News Digital show.
Prosecutors filed a motion to increase Whiting’s bond.
“The current bond amount is woefully inadequate to protect the public from this dangerous and violent criminal,” the DA’s office wrote.
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District Judge Michael Godwin denied the motion to increase bond, writing that prosecutors didn’t present any new evidence. Godwin wasn’t the judge who set Whiting’s $60,000 bond.
Richard White, Whiting’s attorney, said in an interview with Fox News Digital that a shift to no bail would be a “slippery slope.”
“There are innocent people that get arrested and it’s a slippery slope when you start just no bail for people,” White said. “But I do understand people’s frustration with that. But I just think, you know, it’s a slippery slope. And look, the case is politicized. I think that has no business in the criminal justice system.”
Republican Gov. Kay Ivey previously expressed her frustrations that Whiting was released on bond in a Facebook post.
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“Today, we learn that one of the four suspects has been released back onto the streets,” Ivey wrote on Oct. 20. “This is exactly the legal loophole that I and many in the Legislature sought to close when I signed the Safe Alabama package. Next May, all Alabama voters will have a chance to end mandatory bail for those suspected of attempted murder by voting to expand Aniah’s Law. I will not forget today’s troubling news when casting my vote.”
Lawmakers recently passed legislation which would add attempted murder to the list of eligible charges in Aniah’s Law, but it still needs to be approved by voters in the state.
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