By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

On Monday, August 6, Deandre Buchanan appeared via television screen before Circuit Court Judge Kevin D. Harrell on two of the charges levied against him: Burglary in the First Degree and Stealing in the First Degree. Judge Harrell declined to reduce the $10,000, 10% bond against Buchanan, despite a request from the defendant to do so.

Buchanan argued for a reduced bond or a release on his own recognizance (RoR), saying that he’d recently secured a job, had a child to care for, and only skipped out on house arrest because he didn’t get along with the homeowner.

“I’m trying to do right now, your honor, I just need a chance,” Buchanan said.

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jamie Hunt, however, appeared before the court to request that the bond be upheld, due primarily to the fact that additional charges are pending against Buchanan. Harrell decided against a bond reduction, in part because Buchanan failed to comply with the terms of his prior house arrest.

“If you can’t make it on county house arrest, I’m sure not going to give you an RoR bond,” Harrell said.

After the hearing, Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office Director of Communications Mike Mansur cautioned that the decision not to reduce Buchanan’s bond doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll remain incarcerated indefinitely. Mansur noted that on August 6, the Jackson County jail was 110 inmates over capacity.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep him in, but sometimes we’re fighting a battle we can’t win because of the capacity issue,” Mansur said.

One of Buchanan’s victims, Kesar Sharma-Crawford, told the Northeast News on Monday, August 6 that she was victimized by Buchanan robberies twice in the same week during the spring of 2018. She said still remembers walking into her home with her two-year-old son to find it in disarray.

“It wasn’t just that it had been robbed; I had stuff from upstairs thrown downstairs, they had taken litter from my cat’s box and thrown it everywhere,” Sharma-Crawford said. “It was not just robbed, it was completely ransacked.”

Sharma-Crawford added that the idea of somebody being in her home was terrifying enough that the thought prevented her from staying in her home for several days. By the time she returned, she found that it had been robbed for a second time.

“You become skittish, and you still are skittish from it,” Sharma-Crawford said. “Maybe I’m just paranoid, but after it happening two times in a week, and just the complete disregard for my well-being by these people, it shows a sign of their complete disregard for people in general.”