DeKalb’s top prosecutor contends a judge overstepped and broke the law when he released a woman a jury convicted of murder and is now asking the court to order the woman’s immediate arrest.
“Pamela L. Ballin — found guilty of malice murder — has been released into the community with no bond and against the laws of Georgia,” said a motion DeKalb District Attorney Robert James filed in Superior Court on Monday.
Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott released Pamela Ballin last Wednesday, saying he was considering overturning a jury’s verdict that she was guilty of murdering her husband, Derrick “Ricky” Ballin Sr. in 2009.
On Monday, District Attorney Robert James asked the court to order Ballin’s immediate arrest until a hearing in which Scott said he would decide whether to set the verdict aside or declare a mistrial.
James argued that Scott’s original $100,000 bond was no longer guaranteed by the bonding company, which meant a convicted murderer, facing a mandatory life sentence, was free without bond.
“Judge Mark Anthony Scott has no legal authority to consider either a mistrial or a directed verdict,” James argued in the paperwork. “Once a jury returns its verdict, the trial has ended.”
That would be news to the district attorney in Fayette County, who earlier this year watched a judge declare a mistrial after a jury had found a man guilty of raping a woman suffering from with Down syndrome. The judge then contended the woman did not act like a rape victim and he thought the man deserved a new trial.
Attempts to reach Judge Scott for comment were unsuccessful. Judges are normally prohibited from commenting publicly on cases.
Scott has been on the bench since 2004 and beforehand specialized in criminal defense work, according to the DeKalb County website. He serves on the faculty of Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and is a board member of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.
DeKalb County detectives contended that Pamela Ballin staged a home invasion after killing her husband. Detective F.J. Renauld testified at an earlier hearing that the Lithonia woman smashed her husband on the back of the head with a large statue that had been on a coffee table.
Pamela Ballin’s motive was a $750,000 life insurance policy she had taken out on her husband, coupled with his decision to divorce her because of her affairs and because he believed she was siphoning money from their business account, Renauld said.
The couple owned At Your Service Lawn Care and Landscaping and lived in the upscale Stoneleigh subdivision.
Pamela Ballin was eventually granted a $100,000 bail but the bonding company withdrew it in 2012 because the state had failed to prosecute in a timely manner, James said.
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