Dollar store killings uncover a flaw in sex-offender registry
http://www.freep.com/article/2013080...suspect-Bryant
From article:
If the registry had been updated to show Bryant’s new address or indicate that he was homeless, police would have known he was no longer incarcerated and could have been looking for him after he failed to self-report to law enforcement, as required.
“We rely on the Department of Corrections to make those entries into the system so that we know someone has been released,” Johnson said.
Instead, Bryant remained free.
He landed a job as an assistant manager at a Family Dollar store in Inkster. Earlier this year, employees told the Free Press,
Bryant was fired. Last month, authorities allege, he fatally shot 20-year-olds Brenna Machus and Joseph Orlando, both employees of the Family Dollar in Dearborn. Machus’ body was found days later in a wooded area in Dearborn.
Bryant is now facing his most serious charge to date: first-degree murder.
Crimes tied to sex
Court records show Bryant has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman and later, stabbing a prostitute with a butcher knife.
In March 1999, Bryant was accused of fondling a woman as she slept in a Detroit home, records show.
Bryant pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct and was given five years of probation, with his first year served in jail, and he was ordered to participate in a sex-offender therapy group, according to court records.
Two years later, Bryant was accused of violating his probation by assaulting a woman in Detroit.
According to court documents, the woman testified that she was walking along Joy Road about 3 a.m. Feb. 5, 2001, when Bryant drove up to her in a burgundy Crown Victoria. Homeless and working as a prostitute, the woman said she agreed to have sexual relations with Bryant for $20, but when he gave her only $2, she went to leave.
Bryant then pulled out a butcher knife, according to records.
The woman “testified that the defendant made several attempts to stab her and that they struggled in the car,” a court filing says. She “opined that the multiple coats she was wearing provided some protection from the defendant’s knife.”
According to court records, after the woman escaped, she ran to a friend’s home and realized she had been cut on the back of her neck — a wound that required nine staples.
A month after the attack, the woman saw Bryant at a gas station with the Crown Victoria, took down the license plate number and later identified him in a lineup, according to court records.
Bryant was sentenced to serve four to 10 years in prison on a charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm — and because of bad behavior while incarcerated, he served the length of it, officials have said.
Bryant said he had ineffective counsel, but the state Court of Appeals found there was no evidence his counsel was ineffective, records show. Bryant submitted a number of handwritten and typed court filings. In one, he wrote that while in prison, he began “self-education in criminal law.”
