MADISON COUNTY, Miss. — One of the men connected to the death of a 6-year-old Mississippi boy who was kidnapped from a Madison County grocery store has been released on bond.
Dwan Wakefield, one of three men facing a capital murder charge in the death of Kingston Frazier, was released on a $275,000 bond after a judge signed a bond order Wednesday, CBS affiliate WJTV confirmed.
A bond hearing was not held.
Investigators said Kingston was asleep in his mother’s car when it was stolen from a Jackson supermarket parking lot May 18. He was found shot dead on the rear floorboard hours later.
Wakefield and two co-defendants, 17-year-old D’Allen Washington and 19-year-old Byron McBride, were arrested in connection to the case. Both Wakefield and Washington have claimed McBride was the one who pulled the trigger.
A judge denied previous bond requests from Wakefield, who has maintained that he didn’t participate in Kingston’s death in a way that merited a murder charge.
Now, months after Kingston’s death and the failed attempts at receiving bond, the victim’s family was shocked to learn of the new development. They told local news outlets they were not notified about the release.
Instead, they were forced to watch online and on TV as he walked out of jail a free man.
“Who dropped the ball? What happened?” one family member said. “We can not just do these types of things in secret. Let’s be out in the open. Let’s talk about what is taking place when it comes to crimes here in the city, in this state.”
Wakefield’s attorney, Tom Fortner, also said the family should have been notified.
“We understand that one should not be held for bond for punishment for a crime that has taken place and no one has been found guilty. We understand that real good, but at the end of the day when that individual receives due process, we think that the families of young Kingston should have been notified,” he told WJTV.
The other two suspects in the case remain in jail.
