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OVERCROWDED JAIL: Cases reveal program's flaws
Freed inmates who killed


By The Detroit News

Chriswell Benton Jr. Jackson Provience Jones Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

   These five men committed murder while they were awaiting trial on other felony charges in Wayne County.
   
Dion Tyrae Chriswell, 23
   Five weeks after his release from Wayne County Jail on an electronic tether, his second release from the jail in six months, Chriswell, nicknamed "Fat Cat," executed Jermaine Stewart in cold blood in River Rouge.
   After a late-night beer and cocaine house party on March 7, 1999, Chriswell argued with Stewart and riddled his body with 15 rounds from an AK-47. As Stewart, 21, slumped against a wall and onto the floor, Chriswell calmly strolled over and shot him once more in the head.
   Chriswell is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.
   He was first arrested on July 1, 1998, on drug and weapons charges. He was also wanted for violating his probation on an earlier weapons conviction. The next day, he was released without having to post bond and disappeared for six months. After a second arrest, he was again released on Jan. 25, 1999, and remained free until he killed Stewart.
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George C. Benton Jr., 21
   At the time Benton killed Arthur "Maurice" Pugh, he had been released twice from the jail while awaiting trial on drug charges.
   Benton was angry at Pugh for allegedly slipping a counterfeit $20 bill past him for drugs. On Jan. 14, 2000, he confronted Pugh, 29, in Detroit and fired eight slugs into Pugh as he tried to escape.
   Benton is now serving 27 to 52 years in prison for the murder.
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Derrick Jackson, 26
   Derrick Jackson was facing drug and weapons charges when he was let out of the Wayne County Jail on April 3, 2000.
   On July 8 of that year, Lydell Atkins, 22, confronted Jackson on a street in Detroit's east side and threatened to kill him for encroaching on his turf and one of his women. Later that afternoon, Jackson shot Atkins to death in a party store on Gratiot. Jackson was found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 18 to 30 years in prison.
   *** *** ***
   
Dwayne Provience, 18
   Provience had previously skipped court and forfeited a $5,000 cash bond on a drug case when he was released from the jail on Jan. 21, 2000.
   On March 24, 2000, in Detroit, Provience and his brother, De-La Provience, argued violently with Rene Hunter in a car stopped in the middle of a busy west-side Detroit street in the early afternoon. Hunter, 21, cursed the brothers as he stepped out of the car. Dwayne Provience jumped out of the passenger side and shot Hunter under the right eye. He was sentenced to 32 to 60 years in prison.
   *** *** ***
   
Quentin Jones, 21
   
   After his Jan. 4, 1999, release from the jail, where he was awaiting trial on a drug possession charge, Jones went back to business dealing dope.
   On April 15, Jones and two other men invaded the home of drug dealer Samuel Trotter in Highland Park. They ransacked the house with Trotter and his wife, Latesha, lying face down and their infant child at their side.
   The trio covered the Trotters with a sheet and Jones shot the couple three times each in the head. He spared the child. Jones received two life sentences.