Letter offers window into mistaken release of San Francisco Twin Peaks murder suspect

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- ABC7 News has obtained a letter from San Francisco pretrial services to the courts saying they made a grievous error which led to the release of a man who later allegedly committed a murder on Twin Peaks.

The risk assessment by the city's pretrial diversion project had a serious error, which if corrected project's officials now say would have kept murder suspect Lamonte Mims from being released five days before he and Fantasy Decuir allegedly shot to death film scout Edward French.

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ABC7News obtained a transcript of a July 11 pretrial services meeting with the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney.

Pretrial diversion uses a form with nine questions to assess the risk of a defendant to help a judge decide whether they should be released, or go to jail.

Mims had just been arrested for possessing firearms.

The form which ABC7 News obtained shows there was an error on question nine, which asked if Lamonte Mims had a prior sentence for which he served time. The response was "no," but the correct answer should have been "yes."

Mims was arrested last year for a felony car burglary in San Mateo. He was arrested again in November for car break-ins. And for that, he served three months of a six month jail sentence.

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The rap sheet clearly showed he was sentenced and served time.

The judge relied on the accuracy of the assessment, and decided to release Mims with certain conditions suggested by the prosecutor.

Just five days later on July 16, the murder took place on Twin Peaks.

The prosecutor, Ryan King apparently did not catch the error. He said in a meeting, "I've reviewed the public safety assessment. It appears to take into consideration all the materials in my file."

The District Attorney's office issued a statement saying they are working with their partners to ensure that these assessment scores are properly calculated.