By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Calling it “outrageous and unacceptable”, and “demoralizing to law enforcement”, Mayor Jorge Elorza Tuesday joined families of two murder victims to raise an alarm about murder suspects released on bail to await trial on home confinement, while a court spokesman defended the judge’s actions as protecting both the public and the defendants’ presumption of innocence.
“Murderers… with strong cases against them … being let out on bail over the objections of the police and the attorney general’s office? This isn’t normal, and I understand why the families are outraged,” said Elorza, an attorney.
At a news conference at the Providence Public Safety complex, Elorza indicated that he knew one of the murder victims as a young child, Andrei Bonilla, 23. His father, Andy Bonilla said his son had created a clothing line, and was working to solve problems in his community.
“Ironically, he was murdered on the streets that he was trying to change,” said Bonilla.
The mother of another murder victim broke down in tears as she criticized the judge’s decision to release her son’s suspected killer on bail to home confinement.
“When that monster, Page got bail, it was like a slap in the face, like, the judge said my baby didn’t matter. And my baby matters,” Michelle Grundy cried. Her son, Tyreik Grundy, 25 was shot May 14, 2021.
“These are capital offenses, it doesn’t get any worse than a capital offense where you face life imprisonment,” said Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare.
Pare said that bail was set by Superior Court Judge Kristen Rodgers in the cases of Andrew Mangru, charged in the killing of Andrei Bonilla and Quelon Page in the death of Tyreik Grundy.
“These cases of violence are gut-wrenching,” said courts spokesman Craig Berke in a statement, saying the judge and the courts have complete regard for the victims and their families.
Despite what was said at the media event, the defendants are not “out on the streets”, Berke said, adding that “the purpose of bail is to ensure appearance at trial. These defendants are on home confinement with electronic monitoring.”
“The judge has protected the public by taking the defendants off the streets and protected the rights of the defendants pending trial, lest we forget the presumption of innocence that is central to our system of justice,” Berke said.
“The two families are here,” said Elorza, “knowing that them speaking out isn’t going to change their sons’ case. But they’re speaking out to make sure that other families don’t have to go through what they’re going through right now.”
