(LEX 18) — When 27-year-old Daquis Sharp was charged last week with attempted murder of a police officer in a shooting that injured a detective, he was already out on bond on four separate felony cases.
The cases ranged from counts of wanton endangerment and being a convicted felon in possession of a gun to trafficking marijuana near a school. Several of the cases involved firearms.
Hisfour pending caseswere being handled by three different Fayette Circuit Court Judges: Chief Judge Kim Bunnell, Judge Diane Minnifield, and Judge Thomas Travis. The 2019 case being handled by Minnifield was previously handled by different judges but was given to her in early 2023 after the previous judges left.
In each of Sharp’s four pending cases, “no new arrests or violation of law” was listed as a condition of release. But with each new case he was able to post bond, and his bond release wasn’t revoked in the prior cases.
Cases like his are not rare, commonwealth’s attorney Kimberly Baird said.
“As the prosecution, we're getting the public outcry,” Baird said. “We’re getting the comments from the victim about ‘why are they out?’ and I don't have an answer for you, because that's not my decision.”
While the prosecution can ask for a suspect’s bond release to be revoked, it’s ultimately up to judges to weigh multiple factors to make the decision.
“The prosecutor is always saying, ‘for public safety, put them in,’” Baird said. “That's not my call. The judge makes that determination about whether they will release them or on what bond amount to release them.”
Fayette County Circuit Court Chief Judge Kim Bunnell wasn’t able to speak with LEX 18 specifically about Sharp’s case, but she said that in any case, judges have to weigh any new alleged offenses against the defendant’s presumption of innocence and be made aware of any new charges.
In Sharp’s case, Baird said that one of her assistant prosecutors did make a different judge aware of a new case against him. However, the assistant prosecutor did not file a written motion for Sharp’s bond to be revoked.
LEX 18 asked Baird why, and she said that among the hundreds of cases prosecutors have to handle, they have to pick their battles.
“If you file a motion, sometimes we feel like it falls on deaf ears,” Baird said. “They're all great, I'm not trying to say anything about that, but sometimes you can just read a room.”
Last Thursday, motions were filed to revoke Sharp’s bond release in all four of the felony cases he had pending before he was charged in last Wednesday’s shooting. The motions are set to be heard this Friday.
