A previously deported illegal migrant allegedly killed a man in a hit-and-run accident after being released with no bond by a Democratic prosecutor.
Wilmer Fuentes Mejia allegedly mowed down an American man with his vehicle in Durham, North Carolina, in September, according to WRAL. The foreign national — who had already been removed twice from the country — was previously arrested in 2020 for allegedly driving under the influence in Wake County, but was released by the county’s district attorney without bond.
The incident follows years of debate over sanctuary policy in Wake County and the repeated arrest and release of Iryna Zarutska’s alleged killer in nearby Mecklenburg County.
Richard Ferguson, Jr. was killed on Sept. 13 near a bus stop when a vehicle veered off the road, hit two signs and then collided with Ferguson, according to local reports. The 61-year-old was coming home from his second job and had just gotten off the city bus at the time of the incident.
During a court appearance earlier this month, a prosecutor stated that Mejia had been deported from the country twice before, according to WRAL. A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation about Mejia’s immigration history.
After Mejia was released without bond for his 2020 DWI arrest, he failed to show up to his court hearing and an order was issued for his arrest, according to court records reviewed by WRAL. However, he was not arrested until his fatal car accident involving Ferguson.
“It has not been unusual for defendants to receive a written promise to appear and be released to a sober adult if they have no history of prior offenses and no history of missing court which appears to have been the situation here,” Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said to WRAL when asked if it was standard practice for individuals charged with DWI to not be given bond. “NCGS 15A-534.2 provides a right to pretrial release in driving while impaired cases where an individual is either no longer impaired or a sober adult is willing to take custody.”
A spokesperson for the Wake County District Attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
Wake County is a heavily Democratic jurisdiction where former Vice President Kamala Harris won with more than 60% of the county’s vote in the 2024 presidential election. Freeman, a Democrat, declared earlier this year that she would not seek re-election to office after serving as the county’s top prosecutor for over a decade.
ICE cooperation has long been a contentious debate for law enforcement in Wake County, with a longtime Republican sheriff losing his bid for re-election in 2018 in an election that largely centered around the agency’s 287(g) program.
In nearby Mecklenburg County, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., had been arrested 14 different times before going on to kill Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in a horrific stabbing in August that shocked the country. The brutal murder sparked debate over the use of cashless bail for repeat offenders and other individuals charged with serious crimes.
“There was a time twenty some-odd years ago where I was going through some rough things, a drug addiction, and my brother helped see me through that,” Reginald Ferguson, Richard’s brother, said to WRAL. “Never once gave up on me, one time…He didn’t deserve to get killed and leave this earth.”
“If he had never got out on bond, my brother would be alive today,” Reginald stated.
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