No-bond hold denied in shooting case, but suspect remains in jail
Man accused of firing at girlfriend
A judge on Thursday denied the state’s request to detain pending trial a man accused of shooting his pregnant girlfriend.
Mauralon Harper’s case was one of two taken to the Supreme Court after Judge Stanley Whitaker denied the state’s motion seeking pretrial detention. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to District Court, where Judge Charles Brown heard the motion Thursday morning.
In denying the request, Brown focused on the fact that Harper is already in custody on a no-bond hold in an unrelated case.
“He’s sitting there in orange clothes, handcuffed and shackled,” Brown said. “That’s as much as anyone can do. That’s already happening. I could (release) him on this case, and he’s gonna stay in funky orange clothes … handcuffs and shackles.”
He continued a $100,000 cash or surety bond for Harper, and ordered intensive supervision by pretrial services should he post that bond.
Harper’s defense attorney, Jeff Rein, said that if his client’s conditions of release in the other case change, he will notify prosecutor Larissa Callaway and the court so the state can consider making another request for preventive detention.
Callaway said in court that Harper shot his girlfriend, who is pregnant with his child, in the ribs as she sat in her car. Callaway said the injury required extensive medical care and ongoing treatment. The fetus was uninjured.
District Attorney Raúl Torrez argued in his March petition to the Supreme Court that judges were demanding too much evidence, even live witnesses, at pretrial detention hearings, and used Harper’s case as an example. Rein said Whitaker expressed concern that prosecutors didn’t bring witnesses to authenticate some of the evidence they presented during Harper’s original detention hearing.