A murder suspect was back in police custody Monday after officials bungled his charges last week and accidentally set him free from jail, the Baltimore City State?s Attorney?s Office said.
Assault charges against 19-year-old Zukael Stephens should have been dropped in favor of a murder count at a court hearing after the victim in the case, Marcus Rogers, died of his injuries, a state?s attorney?s spokeswoman said.
Instead the entire case ? which included both assault and murder charges ? was dropped, and Stephens walked free.
“It was just a very complicated paperwork tangle that was helped along by human error,” said Margaret Burns, the spokeswoman.
Dropping lesser charges and replacing them with more serious counts is routine for prosecutors, she said, and if they had reviewed Stephens? case more carefully, they would have seen the problem.
Stephens and Rogers were spotted in video footage walking into a building in the 1000 block of St. Paul Street together, several hours before Rogers? seventh-floor apartment went up in flames on Oct. 11, according to court documents.
Firefighters raised a ladder to a balcony outside the apartment and found Rogers lying inside, unconscious, a fire spokesman said.
Suffering from a fractured skull, burns on his back and cuts on his face, Rogers lived for six days at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
A warrant for Stephens? arrest on assault charges had not been logged in when Rogers died on Oct. 17, Burns said.
Investigators then obtained a warrant charging Stephens with murder, she said, but rather than the new counts replacing the old, the entire case was merged and dropped.
Court records show that Stephens was arrested by Oct. 21 and allowed out of jail, despite a “Do Not Release” order, on Thursday.
Officials with the state Division of Pretrial Detention and Services confirmed that he was let go, and said the error was not theirs.
Stephens was at home Monday morning when police arrived to arrest him, authorities said.
