Man convicted of murder mistakenly released by Clayton sheriff’s office, DA says

“We are not part of the manhunt for the defendant,” the DA’s office said.

The sheriff’s office has not responded to numerous requests for more information from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Guzman’s lawyer, Jackie Tyo, declined to comment.

A week ago, Tyo signed a notice to waive Guzman’s presence for a May 8 status conference, according to court documents.

The killing happened in August 2022, when authorities were called to the Sutter Lake apartments in the 8100 block of Webb Road about a domestic dispute involving a death.

While officers were en route, Clayton police said Guzman told 911 dispatchers that he killed Grayson by choking her. She was found dead in a bathroom, police said.

It was determined that a dispute between Guzman and Grayson led to the deadly incident. He was originally charged with malice murder and aggravated assault by strangulation.

According to Channel 2 Action News, the victim’s mother, Christina Grayson, said she was told by the DA’s office that the release involved a coding error.

“They have no clue who coded it. They don’t know what’s going on or where he is,” she told the news station. “And this is the problem: I have not seen a ‘Wanted’ nothing. I have not seen an alert or nothing. They have not alerted anyone.”

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, 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.

The Georgia Department of Corrections said there was no scheduled prison transport for Guzman at the time of his release.

“(The GDOC) has not received the case in question,” a spokesperson added.

Guzman was the latest inmate to be mistakenly released from the Clayton jail.

In January 2024, 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.

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.

“The two employees who are responsible for this threat to public safety are now on administrative leave, and my Internal Affairs unit is investigating how this unacceptable action occurred,” Clayton Sheriff Levon Allen said at the time.

The local mishaps were not limited to Clayton, however. In 2018, a man convicted of murder was on his way to prison when he was mistakenly released from the DeKalb County jail. Javoris Hurston was originally arrested in Fulton on a murder charge in the death of Barry Hawkins, a 51-year-old who was shot on Ira Street in Atlanta in May 2015.

Hurston had reportedly returned to DeKalb to face aggravated assault charges that were dropped during a hearing, so officials let him go. A fugitive unit captured Hurston a few days later and returned him to jail.

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