Little information on how inmate was released early
Three weeks after a Silverdale Detention Center inmate was wrongfully released the same day he pleaded guilty to four felony counts of aggravated domestic assault — and stayed free for six days, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office still does not have an explanation for how it happened.
James Durand Favors III, 27, was originally arrested in March 2017 after a woman accused him of imprisoning her in his home for at least two days and torturing her repeatedly.
He was released on July 2 of this year after pleading guilty to the aggravated domestic assault charges and wasn’t re-arrested until July 8.
It’s still not clear how that happened, but court records shed a little light on the trajectory of Favors’ case through Hamilton County’s Criminal Court system.
Favors’ original charges — aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault and interference with emergency calls — were bound over to a grand jury in April 2017.
A third charge — female genital mutilation — was dismissed by prosecutors.
Prosecutors then presented their evidence to a grand jury. And in September 2017, Favors was indicted on charges of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated domestic assault, interference with emergency calls and two counts of aggravated rape.
Since then, the case has been making its way through the court system, and after multiple hearings, all four charges were dismissed by prosecutors on July 2 of this year.
Favors’ defense attorney Fisher Wise filed a Rule 412 motion that same day, meaning he was seeking a hearing to present alleged proof of sexual consent by the accuser and to question her credibility. (In Tennessee, defendants accused of sexual offenses can invoke Rule 412 to question an accuser’s sexual behavior.) Also, Wise had already made previous arguments questioning the accuser’s timeline of events and alleged drug use.
Also on July 2, prosecutors filed four new charges: four counts of aggravated domestic assault, a class C felony. Favors pleaded guilty to those charges.
But instead of going back to jail to await a sentencing hearing, Favors was released “in error by CCA [Corrections Corporation of America, or CoreCivic, the private company that manages Silverdale Detention Center],” according to Hamilton County Criminal Court records.
A CoreCivic spokeswoman referred any questions to Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are reviewing to see if his dismissal paperwork conflicted with the new charges that were filed,” sheriff’s office spokesman Matt Lea said.
But as of Wednesday afternoon, Lea said he didn’t “have any further details to give [the Times Free Press] regarding this incident.”
What he did say was “this incident has brought to light the need to consistently review our practices regarding the timely relay of information throughout the Judicial System.”
“We are working with the Hamilton County Criminal Court Clerk’s Office, Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office, and the Hamilton County Courts to ensure future incidents such as this do not occur,” Lea said. “It is important to note Favors was quickly apprehended following notification to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office after a [warrant] was issued for his arrest on July 7th.”
It actually wasn’t until July 8 that a warrant was issued for Favors’ arrest, according to criminal court records and the sheriff’s office.
Favors is being held in the Hamilton County Jail awaiting a Sept. 3 sentencing hearing.
In 2014, Favors faced similar charges in connection to an alleged Christmas Eve assault on a separate woman. He served an 11-month, 29-day suspended sentence after pleading guilty to domestic assault and false imprisonment.