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OVERCROWDED JAIL: Cases reveal program's flaws
Suspect fools system, kills teen while free
Felon's case shows ease of hiding criminal past

By Norman Sinclair, and Ronald J. Hansen / The Detroit News

David Coates / The Detroit News Willa Jemison holds a photo of her 15-year-old daughter, Dominike, who was killed by a man released from jail. Garner Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

   INKSTER -- Willa Jemison took an instant dislike to her daughter's 20-year-old boyfriend, Robert Garner, because of his attitude.
   But she had no idea that the man dating her 15-year-old daughter was a convicted drug dealer on probation. And she had no inkling that, despite his prior conviction, he had been released under an alias and without supervision from the Wayne County Jail with new charges against him after a second drug arrest.
   She would learn the truth only after her daughter, Dominike, was found shot to death in Garner's bed.
   "Maybe if he hadn't been let out early, my baby would still be alive," Jemison said. "If he was supposed to be in jail and they had a warrant for him, they should have gone out and got him."
   When police arrested Garner on Nov. 26, 1999, on drug charges, they didn't know he was already on probation for a drug conviction under the alias Robert E. Taylor. He adopted another alias, Robert Gardner, when he was booked into the jail.
   Jail officials released him to the streets four weeks after his arrest to make room for suspects they believed were more dangerous.
   When Garner skipped his arraignment three weeks after his release, a warrant was issued for his arrest. The warrant, however, was merely an entry into the court's computer system. Police never looked for him until July 4, 2000.
   That morning, Inkster police were called to a home on Pierce. There, they found Dominike Jemison dead on a makeshift bed on the floor of the blood-spattered living room.
   Several adult women who lived there told police Garner and the girl had quarreled earlier. They said they were awakened by a gunshot and found Garner, dazed, standing near Dominike's body, a silver handgun with blood on it resting on a chair nearby. Dominike was shot in the face at close range.
   Witnesses said Garner told them the shooting was an accident and that he didn't mean to shoot the Inkster High School ninth-grader. When police arrived, Garner and the gun were gone.
   A search of the house turned up several stashes of marijuana, a Mickey Mouse bank with six .357-caliber bullets and an AK-47 assault rifle in an upstairs closet. Inkster police found the weapon, a .357-caliber revolver, wrapped in a blue sweatshirt, hidden in a nearby field.
   Garner claimed Dominike rolled over the gun under a pillow and accidentally shot herself. A jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 42 months to 15 years in prison.
   Willa Jemison said she thought her daughter was spending the night at her aunt's home a few doors from where she was killed.
   "I can't pick my children's friends," Jemison said. "I told her I didn't care for him. If he should have been in jail, then it's the system's fault."