Christina Grayson was stunned into silence when the Clayton County District Attorney’s Office called Tuesday to say her daughter’s killer was mistakenly released from jail last month.
Prosecutors on the other end of the call were also muted as Grayson sat in an elementary school pickup line in Kissimmee, Florida, just a short distance from where she lives and where her daughter’s killer, Kathan Guzman, grew up.
By the time Grayson received the call, Guzman had already been on the run for two weeks. As of Friday morning, the sheriff’s office had not provided a public update.
In late October, Guzman was sentenced to life in prison for choking 19-year-old Delila Grayson to death at the Sutter Lake apartments in Clayton in August 2022.
“(The DA’s office) were lost for words,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday. “They were silent.”
It was at least the third time since 2022 that an inmate had been mistakenly released from the Clayton jail, according to online records. Guzman was released on or about March 25, prosecutors said.
Credit: Christina Grayson
Credit: Christina Grayson
On Thursday, the DA’s office wasn’t quiet, expressing frustrations over the lack of communication and accountability from the Clayton sheriff’s office.
Clayton DA Tasha Mosley told the AJC she canceled a scheduled news conference 30 minutes after announcing it because the person who needs to answer for how Guzman was released is Sheriff Levon Allen, not her office.
“All appropriate paperwork was sent to the appropriate people. I have no idea why they released this man,” Mosley said. “We are just as disappointed and pissed off as everybody else.”
The district attorney said she has spoken with the sheriff but did not disclose details of the conversation or say if he has plans to make any public statements.
“All I can say is, we did our job,” Mosley said. “We convicted him of felony murder and aggravated assault. ... He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.”
It’s still not clear how the mistake was made. The AJC has attempted to reach the sheriff via email, phone and in person, but his office provided no information to the media or public about the ongoing search for Guzman or why he was released from their custody until this week. The AJC requested to interview Allen at the sheriff’s office Thursday but was told he was not available.
Allen did speak to Channel 2 Action News, saying the mistake was the result of a training failure and that his workers were not paying attention. He said staff looked at a court document showing prosecutors were dismissing a charge. But it was a necrophilia charge that had been dropped, not the felony murder and aggravated assault charges.
Guzman’s lawyer, Jackie Tyo, declined to comment.
The Georgia Office of Victim Services said it notified the DA’s office Tuesday after finding out Guzman was no longer in the county jail during a routine check April 4 . Spokesman Steve Hayes said the office reached out to the jail April 4 and the sheriff’s office confirmed that Guzman had been released.
“This process is not in statute, it is a process the office has initiated,” Hayes said, adding they routinely check when recently convicted offenders are transferred to state custody. “Their process appears to have proven beneficial to public safety in that authorities now know the individual is not in custody.”
At Guzman’s sentencing in late October, Christina Grayson tried her best to look the convicted killer in the eyes. His gaze, however, was fixated on the floor, she said.
While Guzman’s sentence did include a possibility for eventual parole, the penalty still brought the mother some closure, she said. After leaving Georgia, Grayson said she went to her daughter’s grave, placed flowers and sat beside her headstone.
Then she broke down in tears.
“I said that this was going to be my last time randomly crying about Delila, and that the peace that we got in court was the peace that we were going to get,” she said.
Nearly six months later, Grayson said that peace is gone.
Deputy Commander Dennis Durando with the U.S. Marshals Service told the AJC his agency was asked by the Clayton sheriff’s office within the past week to help in the search for Guzman. Durando said he couldn’t comment on any developments in the case, but that they were “trying to get him in custody as fast as possible.”
Allen told Channel 2 that Guzman might have returned to Florida, which has given Grayson nightmares.
The mother said she has been left with “overwhelming fear” over her daughter’s killer. According to the DA’s office, Delila was choked to death after Guzman put her in a “sleeper hold” at their shared apartment in the 8100 block of Webb Road.
Hundreds of miles away, Grayson said she now stays awake at night, wondering if Guzman will be standing in front of her bed waiting to harm her.
“Last night, I touched the door locks three to four times,” she said. “I tossed and turned because my biggest fear is just waking up to him getting ready to do whatever he wants to me.”
After being told that Guzman was mistakenly released, Grayson said she decided to reach out to the media out of frustration. She said it was the “last straw,” and she continues to look for answers.
Grayson said she was told the mishap was a coding error.
“I understand a clerical error and labeling somebody’s birthday wrong, but letting a convicted killer go free two weeks before the victim’s family is notified?” she said. “It’s horrible. I need answers.”
The previous instance of an inmate being mistakenly released by the Clayton sheriff’s office came in January 2024, when Zion River Shaka was released after being transferred from the Fulton County jail to the Clayton jail for a scheduled court hearing. The Clayton sheriff’s office was given instructions to return Shaka to Fulton after the hearing, officials said, but that never happened. Shaka, who was originally arrested in 2020, was arrested again in June, and his court case appears open.
Also, in November 2022, Kaiser Ulrick Suggs, a man accused of murder in Fulton, was transferred to the Clayton jail to answer to aggravated assault charges that were ultimately dismissed, the sheriff’s office said. He was originally arrested in April 2021 in Fulton and charged with multiple counts, including murder, home invasion and burglary, according to online jail records.
Suggs was mistakenly released instead of being transferred back to Fulton, where his murder case is progressing through the court system. In February 2023, Suggs turned himself in, officials said.
As of 8 a.m. Friday, there was no mention of Guzman being mistakenly released from jail on the Clayton sheriff’s office’s social media channels, Nixle or in any news release by the law enforcement agency.
Grayson remains fearful while grieving her daughter, who was a kind soul, known for gravitating toward and helping out people who were bullied, she said.
Delila worked several service jobs and even learned how to crochet, making a pink and purple bathing suit for her sister. She was one of Grayson’s seven children.
After walking away from the cemetery last year following her promise to never cry again for her daughter, Grayson said she felt her family had turned over a new leaf and were finally moving forward from grief.
That was “until the leaf turned backward,” she said.
Freelance photojournalist Ben Hendren contributed to this article.
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