NORTH CAROLINA, USA — Many refer to the suspect in the Charlotte shooting as a 'repeat offender' who frequently failed to appear in court. Now North Carolinians are wondering why he was able to walk the streets freely.
Orange and Chatham counties District Attorney, Jeffrey Nieman looked over the suspect, Terry Hughes' record and explained since he didn't commit what the courts consider very serious crimes in the past, he wasn't behind bars.
"Most of his prior offenses were not what we would consider very serious and obviously any violation of the law is a problem, and any felony is a problem, but prior to this incident the highest-level felony that he was convicted of was G and H felonies," explained Neiman.
Nieman said the most serious felony Hughes was convicted of was in their district for possession of firearm by a felon. He said Hughes was prosecuted and sentenced. Looking at his record, Nieman said it doesn't seem like he got a lot of breaks under the law.
"Unfortunately, in our work, sometimes we have to expect that unexpected things happen. That doesn't mean that the killing and injury of these law enforcement officers was acceptable, anything but, but I'm not sure in every case when something like this happens, we can go back and say 'Well, here's what we or the system did wrong to allow it,' Sometimes those criticisms can be made, this doesn't appear to be one of those cases," Nieman said.
Nieman reminded under the law people can be considered habitual felons. He said this title intensifies the punishment for future offenses. Nieman recalled Hughes had two prior felony convictions, therefore he was not considered a habitual felon yet.
Hughes record also shows a history of several arrests in counties such as: Person, Lincoln, and Alamance. He has a wide range of charges including drugs, high speed chase, and possession of firearm by a felon.
Rockingham County Sheriff, Sam Page said he is far from the only regular within the court system.
"A lot of people that commit these serious offenses they've done other acts, they may not have been caught for them, but they've done other acts," Page continued," I think if you see stuff like the death penalty brought back in and it was a little bit swifter, I think that it could be a death deterrent."