Local & State Headlines

Suspect released by accident

• Dramoskie Simone Perkins has been accused of shooting a friend in the head with a shotgun in June 2007.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — An Albany man jailed for killing his best friend last year was inadvertently released from jail after a typographical error was made on bond documents, authorities said Wednesday.

Dramoskie Simone Perkins had been jailed since his arrest last July when the Albany Police charged him with felony murder in connection with the death of Antonio Daniels.

A typographical error on a bond order dated April 16 allowed Dougherty Superior Court Judge Willie Lockette to issue Perkins a $15,000 bond, which he signed for himself before being released.

Officials from neither the district attorney’s office nor Lockette’s office would speculate as to how the error occurred, but a source familiar with the incident said Wednesday that prosecutors had asked the court to grant a bond to a witness in the case and that somehow Perkins’ name showed up on the bond documents instead of the witness’s.

A bench warrant revoking Perkins’ bond was issued Monday by Lockette, sheriff’s officials said, making Perkins again the focus of attention for local law enforcement.

“We’ve been given a warrant to serve,” Capt. Craig Dodd of the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office said. “So we’re out looking for him.”

Dodd said the office had been contacted by Perkins’ father to set up a time for his son to turn himself in, but the arranged time had come and gone with no sign of Perkins.

Detectives with the Albany Police Department said Wednesday afternoon that they had yet to be contacted about Perkins’ release or the revocation of his bond.

According to court papers obtained Wednesday, Lockette granted Perkins a $15,000 bond that he was able to sign for himself.

The bond clearly states that Perkins is charged with murder, possession of a knife during the commission of a crime, terroristic threats, battery and armed robbery but misidentifies Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue as the “Hon Sonny Perkins.”

Perkins eluded capture after the June 18, 2007 murder for more than a month, according to police officials.

Daniels was found slumped over the seat of a van with a shotgun wound to the head at the Georgian Mobile Estates, according to police reports.

Court records show that the day before the murder, Perkins was reported to have threatened to kill the mother of his children and her family and had gone to her mother’s house armed with a shotgun when he threatened them.

Perkins is also accused of robbing Caesar Juan Jacinto, Elias Calell, Rodriguez Fuentes and Albert Lopez at gunpoint, taking $172.

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