Why are we seemingly surprised when a person like Samuel James Cooper commits more crime? Local law enforcement are treating the recent crimes of Samuel James Cooper like there was some mystery as to why this individual would commit such heinous, senseless acts of violence. The truth is Mr. Cooper should still be incarcerated for the crimes he previously committed. Even after Cooper was incarcrated he continued to commit crimes while behind bars. But for some insane reason he was released early for good behavior.
Consider this from WRAL:
According to court records, Cooper has a criminal record dating from 1993 in Wake County. It includes 10 arrests, 19 charges, including assault on a police officer, escape from prison, robbery, assault on a female, drug charges and larceny.
In 1999, Cooper was one of three inmates who overpowered a guard and escaped from custody while on a Wake County inmate work crew. He was apprehended a few days later.
At that time, he was serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery, assault and drug charges.
Having served 12 years with at least 20 infractions, he was released from prison in February 2006 for good behavior, three months before Haj-Hussein’s death.
Department of Correction spokesman Keith Acree said the release was under sentencing guidelines in place prior to Cooper’s conviction.
According to the North Carolina Department of Correction’s website, Cooper’s admission date was Oct. 5th, 1994 at the age of 17, his total sentence or court commitment collectively was 23 years and 10 months. That would have given him a release date of 2018. In my opinion, the state of North Carolina should reevaluate what constitutes good behavior.
I don’t ever remember us charging anyone with five homicides before,” Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said. “And the particularly interesting (thing) is, these are all charged on five dates as opposed to one event.”
What does that statement mean to you? One murder is too much at the hands of someone who should be serving out their sentences. Just ask Cynthia Moreland’s family. She to was a victim of a career criminal, Antonio Chance. Chance like Cooper, was paroled early only to escalate his crimes from sexual assault to murder.
We can’t undo the past but we can influence the future. Our judicial system is broken and for our lawmaker’s that is an inconvenient fact.
