How Did Nevada Lose A Prisoner For A Year?
Prisons have, really, one job. Keep prisoners inside so they don’t escape and reoffend. Simple enough right? Well, apparently not for Nevada. There was that story about a prisoner that was lost track of, and officials didn’t report it for over three days. But imagine instead of a few days… it was for about a year. How do you lose a prisoner for a year?
That’s a great question for the Nevada Department Of Corrections and the Federal Bureau Of Prisons who, through some comedy of errors, allowed convicted killer Jeremy Kelly to walk free for nearly a year. Back in 1996, he was arrested in the murder of a driver. Three years later he was convicted to two life sentences with the possibility of parole. He was only 15 at the time of the murder.
Fast forward to 2016, Kelly was granted parole. What a second lease on life! There is no way someone would squander that right? Well, no. He was picked up a year later driving without his headlights on. Inside? A gun and drugs. He also violated his probation. He was put into federal custody and was sentenced to 42 months in prison, after which time he’d serve in Nevada prison for violating his probation. You’ll never guess what happened next.
How Did Nevada Lose Track Of A Mistakenly Freed Prisoner?
How’s this for crazy? The Feds called the Clark County Detention Center to hand him over. According to court documents, CCDC said they didn’t need him. The Nevada Department of Corrections never told the Bureau Of Prisons they’d need him back so… they let him go.
The crazier part is they didn’t realize the error until his parole hearing was set to come up at the end of January. Tough to give someone parole if they are already walking free. Yes, over a year later they were on the hunt for their man.
An arrest warrant was issued and last Friday, February 16th, Kelly was arrested. Where? How? No one is talking. But we bet he kept his headlights on during his accidental time on the lam.
