He was an accused teen gang member who pleaded guilty to armed robbery. So, why did a judge set free the young man who, now, is already suspected in yet another attack?
Jayden Myrick, who will turn 18 in August, 2018, is back in jail accused of armed robbery all over again. But this time there's a victim clinging to life.
The victim, Christian Broder, was attending a wedding at a country club Saturday night, July 7, when he was shot outside the club, just after midnight July 8, following the reception. Now, records reveal that prosecutors warned the judge a year ago not to release Myrick.
The judge released him anyway.
In an August 2017 hearing in Fulton County Superior Court, prosecutors warned that Myrick, who had earlier pleaded guilty to an armed robbery he committed in 2015 when he was 14, was so dangerous that he had committed even more violent crimes during the two and a half years he'd been in youth detention. The judge decided to release him on probation anyway a few days after the hearing, when he turned 17, rather than send him to an adult prison.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Myrick being granted probation was one of many bad decisions.
“Court records show that he had over 32 misconduct violations [while in juvenile detention], they recommended or said that his progress was minimal,” Howard said.
Howard said the same day that Myrick was granted probation in August of 2017, he proved once again why prosecutors wanted him kept in jail.
“While he was downstairs being transported up to the courtroom, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department reported that he had forced several young people in the detention with him to eat from a toilet," Howard said.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs, wanting to give the young man every chance to turn his life around, listened to the assistant district attorney's warning.
The ADA told her that in the two-and-a-half years that Myrick spent in the Sumter Youth Detention Center in Americus, Georgia, for the previous armed robbery, "he was essentially running the Blood Gang," and was committing other violent crimes inside the center.
Prosecutors believed he would continue his gang activity if the judge released him. According to the hearing transcript, the prosecutor told the judge, “[Myrick] committed an armed robbery with a firearm [when he was 14]. He agreed to a negotiated [guilty] plea of seven years [in prison]. [But] When he went into custody, he didn’t change his behavior.”
The prosecutor didn't mince words: "I don't think he's rehabilitated."
But the judge still refused to incarcerate.
"He's going to get out, that's the reality," Judge Downs said. "He's going to get out [now or later]."
She wanted him to get his high school GED, get a job, and learn life skills on the outside.
It took less than a month for Myrick to end up in jail again--in September 2017--for violating his probation. Still, Judge Downs refused to send him to prison. Instead, she ordered him to live in an Atlanta community rehab program aimed at helping troubled youth, called Visions Unlimited.
Howard said that less than a month after being granted probation, Myrick showed up on social media involved in gang activity.
“Another Instagram post shows [Myrick threatening] that if anyone calls the police that they would be shot, including his own mother,” Howard told 11Alive.
Myrick's probation was revoked in November of 2017 but for only two months. Prosecutors then asked for his probation to be revoked in May of 2018, but that was denied.
Now, Myrick is charged with shooting and critically wounding Christian Broder.
Atlanta police said that Myrick robbed four wedding guests outside the Capital City Club as they were waiting for an Uber ride. One of those victims, Broder, who is a Washington restaurant executive and the father to an infant daughter, was shot in the lower abdomen.
Broder, who is fighting for his life at Piedmont Hospital, is a random victim, according to police, of an un-rehabilitated gang member with a record of violence.
“Like most people, I’m wondering once you see the evidence why would you let it go?” Howard said. “Why would you put him in a situation where he could do more harm, rather than leaving him in a situation where at least he’d have the opportunity to learn and maybe rehabilitate himself?”
Howard is also questioning Visions Unlimited where Myrick was sent by the judge. Howard said that the organization plays a role in this too because Myrick wasn't showing up as he was ordered to do, and Visions Unlimited should have called and reported him to his probation officer. The woman who answered the phone on Monday, who identified herself to 11Alive News as the founder of Visions Unlimited, Gwen Sands, said she could not comment. But when asked what happened with the Myrick case, the woman replied, "I don't have any idea.... I don't understand any of it.... We do what we do with excellence, with integrity, we stand by our services and our work with our young people."
Judge Downs told Myrick at the August, 2017 court hearing why she wanted to send him to the Visions Unlimited program, rather than sentence him to an adult prison. "She [Gwen Sands] is a powerful woman, and she has committed her life to young people like you and to make a difference, so you would never go back to jail again."
Judge Downs' office said she would have no comment about the Myrick case.
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