INDIANAPOLIS — The Marion Superior Court said the Marion County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) mistakenly released two inmates in eight days.
One inmate was homicide suspect Kevin Mason, which was announced publicly six days after he was released. The MCSO said he was released on Sept. 13 and caught on Sept. 27 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
13News has learned a second inmate, Toriano Hellams, 41, was also accidentally released. Hellams was being held after a Sept. 5 conviction for disarming a law enforcement officer, battery on a public safety officer and resisting law enforcement. He was given two years in prison and a year of supervised release. A case for possession of a narcotic was dropped.
A court spokesperson said the court's records were all entered correctly. When notified of the mistaken release, the court issued a warrant for Hellams and he was later arrested.
13News has learned Hellams was released on Sept. 5 and arrested on Sept. 26.
A statement from the courts said the Marion County Sheriff's Office somehow assigned two numbers to Hellams and released him under the number that was not connected to his sentence.
13News is still working to learn if anyone was disciplined for the accidental release of Hellams. Two Marion County Sheriff's Office employees were let go after the mistaken release of Mason.
Mason's release
Suspected killer Kevin Mason, 28, who was mistakenly released from the Marion County jail two days after he was arrested, was captured in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The United States Marshal Service made the arrest, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office (MCSO). That arrest happened at 1 p.m. Sept. 27 at a home in the 900 block of Summit Avenue in South St. Paul.
"I want to extend my thanks to everyone involved in assisting with the arrest," said Eddie M. Frizell, U.S. Marshal for the District of Minnesota.
Mason was taken into custody without incident.
“I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and congratulations to the USMS for concluding this manhunt and safely bringing Mason back into custody,” Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal said.
Mason was captured after accidentally being released from the Community Justice Campus in Marion County on Sept. 13. The sheriff's office was tight-lipped about it until about a week after.
The sheriff's office said it believed Mason left the city the day of that release.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office said Mason was arrested on Sept. 11 in the 3100 block of North College Avenue for three warrants out of Minnesota for a 2021 shooting, a parole violation and a firearms possession.
An internal investigation was launched at the MCSO to determine if any possible policy or procedural violations occurred. An investigation found one of the inmate records clerks saw three holds from Minnesota and cleared two of them as she thought she was clearing duplicate bookings for Mason. According to the MCSO, authorities in Minnesota waived extradition on the final warrant, not realizing Marion County had cleared the other two. The original records clerk and two others were supposed to review all the booking information and did not catch the error. As such, Mason was released.
Two MCSO employees were fired following the investigation.
The sheriff's office said it did not report Mason's accidental release for six days because they were using it "as a tactical advantage" in the hopes of catching him and not driving him into hiding.
After his release, police said Mason's girlfriend, Desiree Oliver, picked him up. They said she later purchased a new cellphone and took her car in for an oil change and tire repair.
Mason is charged with second-degree murder for a shooting in June 2021 in the parking lot of the Shiloh Temple in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That shooting killed Dontevius Ahmad Catchings, the Minneapolis Police Department previously said.
He was believed to have possibly fled to Florida, but authorities later learned he had been living in Indianapolis for two years.