Michael Buettner
The Progress-Index
PETERSBURG, Va. — A Petersburg man who was recently sentenced to eight years in prison is being sought on a fugitive warrant after he was released from jail last month because of an administrative oversight.
A Petersburg Circuit Court jury in August found Shervon Vonte Brown guilty on one count of robbery and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Brown was sentenced to three years on the firearm charge and five years on the robbery conviction.
The charges stemmed from a robbery last December at a Petersburg residence in which at least one man was wounded by a gunshot. A charge of malicious wounding against Brown was dropped before the case went to trial.
Brown was due for a sentencing hearing on Oct. 27. When he did not appear, officials discovered he had been released from Riverside Regional Jail on Oct. 19.
Petersburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Cassandra S. Conover said the untimely release resulted from an unusual combination of circumstances.
Brown had been arrested earlier this year on an existing warrant for failure to appear on an unrelated charge. Court records indicate that he was serving out his sentence in that case when his trial on the robbery and firearms charges took place.
As a result, Conover said, her office and the court assumed that he was being held without bond on those charges.
“When we had the jury trial, he was in jail,” Conover said. “We were thinking he was in jail on that charge. We didn’t think about addressing bond because he was already in jail.”
As a result, when Brown completed his sentence on the previous conviction, Riverside officials had no orders to continue holding him, and he was released.
Officials are already taking steps to prevent a repeat, Conover said. “Measures are being put in place to make sure this sort of circumstance doesn’t happen again,” she said.
Conover said authorities found out what happened when Brown didn’t show up for his sentencing hearing last week. She said a warrant for his arrest was issued immediately.
“We’ve got them out there looking for him,” Conover said. “He is someone we definitely want picked up.”
Copyright 2010 The Progress-Index