Why Violent Repeat Offender Was Free to Flee During Deliberations

A man who repeatedly tased his ex-boyfriend, beat him with a gun, and threatened to kill him as the victim begged for his life was free to walk out of a Coweta courtroom during jury deliberations—because he had been granted bond under Georgia law.

District Attorney Herb Cranford said the defendant—despite prior felony convictions and the severity of the charges—had not been indicted within 90 days of his arrest.

“Because he was not indicted within 90 days of arrest, he was legally entitled to a bond,” Cranford said.

That legal requirement, Cranford said, is directly tied to a growing case backlog in Coweta’s judicial system.

How the defendant walked out

According to Cranford, the defendant was not being held by law enforcement when the jury reached its verdict because he had already been released on bond.

“When the judge returned to the bench to receive the verdict, he sounded for all of the parties to return to court,” Cranford said. “After all of the lawyers came into the courtroom, he gave the Defendant another 15 minutes and had the courthouse staff look for him and it was determined that he left the building.”

Because he was free on bond, no deputies were assigned to keep him in custody during deliberations. Sheriff’s deputies later found him, and he was arrested to serve his 30 years with no possibility of parole. But how did he get bond in the first place? 

The 90-day rule

Georgia law allows defendants to be granted bond if prosecutors do not formally indict them within 90 days of arrest. Cranford said that timeline is increasingly difficult to meet due to the volume of cases his office is handling.

“A consequence of having a case load backlog is that you can’t review cases quickly enough to indict within 90 days so people with criminal records get bonds,” he said.

That includes defendants charged with serious or violent crimes.

A system under strain

Data from Cranford’s office shows a widening gap between the number of cases coming in and the number being resolved.

In 2025 alone, Coweta prosecutors received 2,185 cases but closed only 1,433, creating a backlog of 752 additional cases. Over the past five years, that gap has grown to more than 3,000 unresolved cases.

At the same time, individual prosecutors are carrying far more cases than recommended.

“There have been studies that suggest an assistant DA or Assistant public defender should have no more than 150 to 200 cases at any given time,” Cranford said. “My people currently have 500 to 600 per ADA.”

Current figures show more than 9,000 open cases across the circuit, averaging more than 500 per prosecutor and in some units exceeding 650 per attorney.

Cranford said that imbalance has persisted for years.

“The last time our circuit closed as many cases as received in a single year was 2011,” he said.

Staffing and funding pressures

Cranford attributes the backlog primarily to staffing shortages tied to funding limits.

“At the end of the day, we just don’t have enough lawyers to match the caseload,” he said.

The district attorney’s office has requested additional funding from Coweta County to retain experienced prosecutors and improve case processing. One current request seeks about $175,000 to keep an assistant district attorney whose position has been funded through a federal grant that expires later this year.

That attorney has already had measurable impact, more than doubling the number of cases presented to a grand jury and dismissing more than 150 cases that did not move forward.

Cranford said additional staffing has also helped reduce the county’s jail population by resolving cases more quickly.

“We’re using the additional employees we’ve received the last two years to reduce the jail population to save the county money,” he said.

Data from his office shows that even small reductions in jail time can result in significant savings. Inmate housing costs average about $70 per day, and reducing average stays by just 20 days could save the county roughly $300,000.

“But there are a lot of people out on bond that the community would really prefer to be held in jail pretrial,” Cranford said.

Funding responsibility debate

Cranford said long-standing differences remain over who should fund the district attorney’s office.

He said county administrators have historically argued the state should bear that responsibility, while he maintains counties must fill the gap as populations grow.

“The state funding formula for DA’s offices is established by a statute that has existed since the 1970s or 1980s,” Cranford said. “Unless it changes, making sure the DA is adequately funded to handle the crimes committed in that county is ultimately the responsibility of the county.”

Some members of the Coweta County Commission have expressed support in recent years for increasing funding, he said, including approving additional staffing in the past budget cycle.

What happens next

Cranford said he remains optimistic that continued investment could help reduce the backlog and prevent similar situations in the future.

“I’ve been raising this issue with the Coweta Commission for years,” he said. “We’ve gotten some traction the last few years by receiving additional employees and I have some optimism that we’ll continue to improve our funding this year.”