CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A teen of accused of opening fire at a graduation party, killing a man and injuring others is now back in the community without even so much as an ankle monitor - and prosecutors fear your safety is at risk.
Jail records show Michael Siosomah bonded out of jail Friday, just hours after Charlotte's police chief announced the end of electronic monitoring for people charged with murder. Siosomah is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury in connection to the June graduation party at an Airbnb uptown.
Court records show weeks ago, a judge ordered the man to be on 24-hour house arrest and electronic monitoring if he ever made his $300,000 secured bond. He made bond on the same day the chief overhauled the ankle monitor program. Court records show prosecutors feverishly tried to stop it, knowing he would be released from jail without electronic monitoring.
"The current bond conditions, adjusted by the unforeseen change in circumstances, are not currently sufficient to ensure the safety of the community," an assistant district attorney wrote in a motion for reconsideration on bond conditions filed Friday.
Michael Sio-Somah court documents
Lucille Puckett, the chair of the NAACP's Political Action Committee, is outraged.
"I think it's sickening. I think the community should be very alarmed about it," she said. "I'm scared for my safety, I'm scared for my family's safety and yes, I'm scared for the community's safety."
Puckett's son was murdered in March 2016. The accused killer in that case is one of the dozens of murder defendants charged with homicide previously granted electronic monitoring. They are now grandfathered in, much to her disappointment, after CMPD Chief Kerr Putney announced Friday he's no longer accepting new murder defendants to the ankle monitor program.
"That was heartbreaking," she said. "I don't think anyone who commits murder should be out on an ankle monitor."
The chief said the decision was solely up to him.
"From now on they're going to have to be either held in jail or the judge is going to let them out, but we can't in good faith allow for our people to monitor people who are charged with murder," Chief Putney said.
He said he didn't consult judges about the change.
"I don't need to," he said. "I'm the only chief. They don't consult with me when they recommend people."
Puckett fears the change could lead to the release of other homicide defendants previously ordered to wear ankle monitors.
"I'm still trying to find out how many more, but I know there are plenty," Puckett said.
An order signed Tuesday reveals if anything is going to change in Siosomah's case, it will be next week at the earliest. The order delays a decision until the original judge and the attorney for the defendant are available. In the meantime, the order requests the teen's attorney provide the address where he's staying for house arrest, requires prosecutors be notified before the teen leaves the house to receive medical treatment and allows him to take high school courses online, but he "must remain at the house."
While District Attorney Spencer Merriweather can't comment about this specific case for ethical reasons, generally, he said he and the police chief are on the same page about electronic monitoring.
“As the Chief recently articulated and as we have argued repeatedly in court, electronic monitoring is a woefully insufficient release condition for many defendants, including those charged with homicide," Merriweather said in a statement. "Defendants charged with first-degree murder can be held without any bond or release condition, which resembles the policy of preventative detention that this office has sought for violent offenders awaiting trial."
Sio-Somah is scheduled to appear in court again Monday.
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