Atlanta Journal-Constitution
| Related Article: Ex-Ga. deputy charged in 2 deaths |
ATLANTA, Ga. — The manhunt continued Sunday for a former DeKalb County sheriff’s deputy who had been under home arrest as he awaited trial in the deaths of his wife, Linda, and a day laborer.
Derrick Yancey, 49, was wearing an electronic ankle monitor and was restricted to the Jonesboro home of his mother and stepfather as he awaited an undetermined trial date. He was last seen there Friday night, authorities said.
Officials said Yancey got a substantial head start on the law.
The private probation company charged with Yancey’s case did not notify the county that the signal had been lost from Yancey’s bracelet until about 4 p.m. Saturday, 11 hours after a monitoring outfit notified the company, DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown Sunday.
“What happened as to why we got this delay is for another day and another investigation,” Brown said.
But Linda Yancey’s sister, Sandra Hannon, lashed out in a news conference Sunday afternoon.
“I am going to call for an independent investigation,” Hannon said. “Why wasn’t the family notified immediately? There was a breakdown in communication. Apparently someone wasn’t doing their job or didn’t care.”
Brown said information about Yancey has been submitted to a national crime database. Additionally, authorities were notified in Detroit, where Yancey has relatives, and on the Canadian border, in case he attempts to flee the country, Brown said.
Yancey was indicted and arrested in August for the June shooting death of his wife Linda, 44, and day laborer Marcial Cax Puluc, 20.
The deputy told police he killed Puluc in self-defense after Puluc killed his wife. But authorities said lab tests showed Yancey shot both victims.
Yancey had been released from jail on $150,000 bond with the condition that he remain under house arrest.
Yancey’s attorney, Keith Adams, said Yancey had been “a bit depressed and despondent” during the past few weeks.
“We’re concerned that the Sheriff’s Department is labeling him armed and dangerous,” Adams said. “We’re hoping that he doesn’t do anything to hurt himself and that law enforcement, if they catch up with him, doesn’t hurt him.”
The court ruling last August by now-retired Judge Anne Workman that allowed Yancey to be released drew a sharp response from his wife’s siblings.
Workman’s order quoted a Georgia law that makes defendants eligible for release on bond if they pose “no significant risk” of fleeing, intimidating witnesses or committing other crimes. Unlike many other states, Workman wrote, Georgia does not further restrict bond for murder defendants unless they have been convicted of a prior violent crime.
In a statement made then, lawyer Loletha Denise Hale, who said she spoke for siblings Eugene Thomas and Gloria Thomas Sanders, accused prosecutors of giving Yancey “preferential treatment as a result of his previous employment with the DeKalb County court system.”
On Sunday, the family was under protective care. Hale said Sanders has custody of the Yanceys’ 8-year-old son.
“The family just wants them to find him as quickly as possible,” Hale said.
Sanders spoke only briefly of Yancey’s escape.
“It’s a shame, isn’t it?” she said. “He should have been behind bars.”
Copyright 2009 Atlanta Journal-Constitution