Miss. murder suspects mistakenly released

• Mistake caught five days after duo were freed

Two murder suspects were among six Hinds County Detention Center inmates charged with violent crimes who were mistakenly released Dec. 6 after jail employees misread court orders. The mistake was caught Tuesday, five days later.

Hinds County Sheriff Department officials said four suspects were back in the Raymond facility Tuesday. Three of the inmates, including the two charged with murder, were back in custody within three hours of the oversight being discovered, said Chief Deputy Chris Picou.

The accidental release occurred exactly six months after another Hinds County inmate was incorrectly released. He was apprehended a week later in Leflore County.

The department enlisted the help of several local law enforcement agencies and federal authorities. By Wednesday night, only Germarkes Smith, 27, remained at large.

Picou said he believed Smith, a Jackson resident, was still in the metro area. Smith faces three counts of aggravated assault.

Bruce Bradley, 37, turned himself in without incident Wednesday afternoon, said Capt. Joe Daughtry, spokesman with the sheriff's office. Bradley is facing house burglary and attempted rape charges.

The two murder suspects, Edd Burrell, 56, and Trevin Bell, 24, were the main focus of the department, said Picou. Those men, along with Roddrick Jones, 17, were back in custody shortly after the error was discovered Tuesday.

By Tuesday night a fourth inmate, David Jackson, 22, had turned himself in to authorities at the Raymond jail, Picou said. Jackson was in jail on an aggravated assault charge.

None of the inmates — who have yet to be indicted — will face additional charges, Picou said.

The error that freed the men, said Picou, did expose a problem with the department's policies.

"Once a complete investigation is done, I'm confident that we will implement new policies and procedures," he said. "I'm equally confident that we will take disciplinary actions toward those individuals that were involved in this process."

Picou would only say there were several employees involved, and possible punishment could range from written reprimands to termination.

The error came after the department received several orders from county courts during September that "indicated some detainees should or would be released by Dec. 1, 2012, if indictments had not been placed or brought against them," said Picou.

However, the orders were not entered into the department's system properly, he added.

Adding to the confusion was a circuit court order Dec. 5 that instructed deputies to retain the detainees listed in the previous court orders.

The department faced a similar kerfuffle in June when a state inmate was transferred to the Hinds detention center to be held on a different criminal matter in Rankin County.

Demondrick Calhoun, 28, had been sent home June 6 after being told there was no reason to hold him.

Mississippi Department of Corrections officials had said Calhoun was in Hinds County on a court order.

Picou said Calhoun's case was the result from a hole in the department's policy. That hole has since been fixed, he said.