Authorities launched a massive manhunt in Louisiana for a killer who was mistakenly released from prison last week – in what appeared to be a computer clerical error, officials said Tuesday.
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Corrections Department spokeswoman Pam Laborde told reporters that Johnson was serving his sentence at the Dixon Correctional Institute, but was transferred to a local jail in East Feliciana Parish to be booked on a misdemeanor count of battery of a correctional officer.
Officials with the Department of Corrections told WAFB that their initial investigation into the incident shows Johnson was getting released from Dixon on good behavior for prior charges.
If the official had called, they would have discovered that Johnson was convicted of manslaughter there in 2013.
“We got a call Monday from someone saying they saw him and asking us why he was free”, Iberville Sheriff Brett Stassi told The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge.
Law enforcement and the Louisiana Department of Corrections are trying to figure out how Mitchell was able to gain release. “When his DOC time was complete, he was released”.
They released him, despite the fact at least 30 years remained on his sentence. Abbeville Police said when Mitchell was indicted for first-degree murder they made sure the paperwork went to Avoyelles Parish. Laborde said the department processes about 17,000 releases a year. “He got released”, Francel Johnson said.
Johnson’s family had been elated to learn that he was released and devastated to learn days later that he was a wanted man. “If he’s a smart man, which he probably isn’t, he should probably turn himself in, and if not-we’re going to use every resource available to take him off the streets”.
“We have all the mechanisms in place to catch him”, Clayton said.
Johnson and another man were both arrested in connection to the case.
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Authorities immediately began searching for Johnson on Monday.
