CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A murder suspect, accused of cutting off his ankle monitor before going missing, has been taken back into custody, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced Monday.
Willie James, 33, was originally placed on the ankle-monitoring system in 2018 when he was charged with killing 25-year-old Matthew Duke Gibbons in northwest Charlotte. He was also charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
He was located by law enforcement in Columbus County, North Carolina, recently.
Community advocates are calling into question why James was placed on an ankle monitor prior to trial.
"It's a slap in the face," Mark Raley, an advocate with Mothers of Murdered Offspring, said. "They're living the death of their loved ones all over again, there's no accountability."
Raley spends time with victims' families and said this type of situation is the hardest on those that have lost someone, particularly to gun violence.
"The cry out is for peace," Raley said. "Where is their joy? Where is their end? But there is no end when the suspect is out on the street."
For Lucille Puckett, this incident hits home.
“If you are arrested for committing such a heinous crime, you need to stay in jail, no bail, no bond, until your day in court,” Puckett said.
Back in 2016, the man charged with first-degree murder for killing her son was out in the community wearing an ankle monitor too.
“It wasn’t a question of did he do it, I saw it, he shot at me also,” Puckett said. “Will the system ever bring justice to the victim and the family? Because it seems like the perpetrator always has more rights than the victim and family.”
Back in 2019, CMPD decided homicide suspects could no longer be put on ankle monitors. Kerr Putney, who was CMPD chief of police at the time, said homicide suspects should be in jail, not out in the community.
“I cannot stand behind having homicide suspects on EM that we monitor out in the community, I think the better place for them would be in jail awaiting trial,” Putney said.
But Willie James was charged in 2018, he was one of 31 homicide suspects who were part of the ankle monitor program that got to stay out of jail.
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