Accused Killer Accidentally Released After Court Typo

An accused murderer was mistakenly released from a jail in Ohio earlier this week after an error made by a court.

Amarion Sanders, 22, was released from Cuyahoga County Jail on Monday afternoon. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office said Sanders was later apprehended by U.S. Marshals and was back in custody on Wednesday.

"The case regarding defendant Amarion Sanders was accidentally dismissed Monday afternoon based on a clerical error made by the court," Lexi Bauer, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, told Newsweek. "There was no motion to dismiss filed by our office. Our office immediately notified the court Tuesday morning of the error… The U.S. Marshals Service and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department actively began searching for Amarion Sanders. As of this morning, he has been arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and he is in custody."

Timothy J. McGinty, a visiting judge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, had issued a warrant for Sanders' arrest on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, due to this court's typographical error, the defendant was released from the county jail where he had been held because he failed to make bond," a judge wrote in a filing, Fox 8 reported.

Antonio Seymore, a 35-year-old accused of assault and theft, was the inmate who should have been released after his case was thrown out on Monday, Cleveland.com reported. The error stemmed from the similarity of the docket numbers of the two cases: Sanders' case number is 685908, while Seymore's is 685909.

Sanders was being held on a $1 million bond after being charged with several offenses, including aggravated murder, in connection with the killing of Derek Driskill.

Driskill, a 39-year-old father-of-three, died after being shot in the head outside a convenience store in Cleveland on September 23 last year, Cleveland.com reported at the time.

Sanders later turned himself in to face charges. He has pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to go on trial in August.

Driskill's wife, Andrea Johnson, said she was stunned that a mistake led to her husband's suspected killer being freed.

"I honestly do not understand how that happens. I understand humans make mistakes, but you would think there's more than one person that something like that goes through," Johnson told Fox 8.

She added: "I don't think it's fair. I mean, that's not justice, it's not our family feeling safe. I mean, he's out on the street and can do it to somebody else."

The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office has been contacted for further comment via email.

Update 06/27/24 at 4:28 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add a statement from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office.