Michigan Department of Corrections investigators are looking into why the suspect charged in two Family Dollar store murders wasn't listed earlier as a fugitive, the Free Press says in an exclusive report.
Police should have been looking for convicted sex offender Lavere Bryant before the crimes, Gina Damron writes.
But Bryant, who never self-reported after being released from prison two years ago after serving time for an assault, continued to roam free because prison officials made an error — they failed to change information on the state’s sex offender registry that would have let law enforcement know he was no longer incarcerated. . . .
“Obviously there was a failure there,” said John Cordell, a spokesman for the Corrections Department. “It appears that a failure to note a change of address resulted in him not being active on the registry.”
Upon release, Bryant should have been required to report to a local police agency twice a year. Failure to do so is a crime that should have led police to look for him.
Bryant, 36, was arraigned Wednesday in Dearborn on first-degree murder charges in the shootings of 20-year-olds Joseph Orlando and Brenna Machus as part of a July 15 store robbery.
At the time, Bryant was still listed on the registry as being incarcerated.
The Free Press quotes Ryan Machus, the brother of one victim:
“It makes me very sick to my stomach to know that our systems are failing us.”
Law enforcement records show a history of aggressive behavior, Damron reports.
In 1999, Bryant pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct and was given jail time and probation and had to register as a sex offender, according to information from a court filing and the Michigan State Police. Two years later, Bryant was locked up on an assault charge and, because of bad behavior in prison, served the length of his sentence, a corrections official said.
