Decades of Sentenced Prison Time = 7 Months in Prison, No Fines Paid
This Week's Soft on Crime Poster Boy
Meet Marquelle Cladwell, sitting in Oklahoma County jail right now but his adult criminal career started when he was four months shy of turning 21 years of age. In 2010 he was arrested and charged on a probable cause but released about five weeks later, most likely because he worked a deal with the D.A..
Then in March of 2013 he was arrested again, paid $550.00 to cover a $5500.00 bond, and again the charges were dropped after a probable cause hearing where probable cause was found.
Less than a month later Caldwell is arrested again and his bond forfeited, with hearings and motions to accelerate which mean that he had a plea deal that he reneged on. Now we find out what he was arrested for in March, Assault and Battery with a Dangerous Weapon and Domestic Assault with a Dangerous Weapon and a third charge of possession of cocaine. Out on bond, Caldwell fails to appear in September, leading to bond forfeiture and a warrant for his arrest. A month later he is back in court with a public defender after the bondsman caught him. Six weeks later he is pleading guilty to a five year deferred sentence with supervision and is ordered to pay around $640.00 in fines and another $1050.00 in costs.Around this same time he is getting a protective order placed on his sorry butt, which he doesn't bother to appear on and never pays the approximately $200.00 in fines.
In March of 2014 Caldwell has committed other crimes and his deferred sentence is ordered accelerated or reinstated. He is re arrested, bonds out on $2000.00 bond, which is forfeited by September on another failure to appear for court. A year and a half later Caldwell is pleading guilty again in return for a ten year sentence in state prison but participating in a six month boot camp program will suspend the ten year sentence. Caldwell is actually incarcerated in the boot camp from around Thanksgiving of 2015 till June of 2016, seven months of inmate summer camp for his crimes so far. As of today not a single cent of this fines and fees have been paid. The case took over three years before it was settled.
But Caldwell had been a busy man prior to his pleading and boot camp in November of 2015. In June of 2015 he was arrested again on probable cause of a crime and a probable cause hearing was held and cause was found. Bond was set at $12,000.00. A week later either these charges have been dropped or other more serious charges have been filed because he is back in court facing Assault with a Dangerous Weapon, and Possession of Marijuana with intent to Distribute within 2000 feet of a School. A few months later Caldwell pleads out to ANOTHER deferred sentence if he completes the boot camp. It is on THIS charge that he spends seven months in inmate summer camp, not his original offense that earned him a five year prison sentence. He is fined $940.00 along with over $1000.00 in court costs and fees. Not a penny has been paid as of this writing despite the short 7 month boot camp sentence.
In November of 2017 Caldwell is caught selling stolen goods to a pawnbroker and charged with two counts making false statements to a pawnbroker. Caldwell is arrested, pleads not guilty, and is bonded out on $2000.00 bond. But less than a month later the bondsman is returning the criminal to jail because it turns out that Caldwell had been arrested on probable cause and cause was found for another crime around the 20th of December 2017. A week later the charges were filed, eluding a police officer and unauthorized use of a vehicle (stolen car used to run from police). The arrest warrant was filed a day after Caldwell had bonded out on the pawnbroker/stolen goods charges.
The bondsman had returned Caldwell to county jail after the second set of charges were filed, a $5500.00 bond was set, but few bondsmen will be willing to post bond for a career criminal and bond jumper so as of today Caldwell sits in county jail. But we aren't done with Caldwell, it turns out that on February 23rd Caldwell was once again facing a probable cause hearing for a third crime committed while he was out on bond.
So between 2018 and 2017 Caldwell had been given around 20 years of prison time but served only 7 months of inmate day care in the boot camp. Meanwhile he robbed, assaulted, ran from the police, and sold drugs. In the end IF he is actually sent to state prison this time he will serve the first sentence and all the other sentences will be served at the same time so the incentive is for criminals to keep committing crimes as long as the sentence is less than the initial sentence because all subsequent crimes are basically penalty free other than the fines and fees that will never be paid.
