Legal questions raised after bond reduced in Maleah Davis' case
HOUSTON, Texas - Four-year-old Maleah Davis has been missing for more than a week. Derion Vence, the man charged with her disappearance, got his bond lowered from a staggering $1,000,000 to $45,000. He also did not make his court appearance today. There are lots of legal questions surrounding the events today in court.
Now it’s up to authorities to build a solid case against Derion Vence, who currently is only facing a tampering with evidence charge. We asked FOX 26's Legal Analyst Chris Tritico to explain some of your questions.
“It’s my view that they only charged him with tampering of evidence, a body, because they wanted to hold him and keep him under their thumb if you will until they gather what they think will be enough evidence to charge him with either murder or capital murder," Tritico said.
We brought up how a bond of $1 million could be reduced to $45,000. Tritico tells us, “a $1 million bond is an instrument of oppression, and that’s why it was lowered, and so we can be upset that it was lowered, but that would be wrong.“
He also says it's against the 8th amendment, and that a court of appeals would have lowered it, if the judge hadn’t stepped in.
Many are hoping to see Vence face more serious charges, but right now, Maleah’s body hasn’t been found, only drops of blood inside the apartment were discovered.
Tritico tells us that “blood evidence is circumstantial evidence of that murder or that capital murder, and that may end up being enough. It depends on when they get to the part where they say this is all the evidence we’re going to get. You don’t have to have a body to charge someone with murder or capital murder.”
Outside of court, people were chanting “Justice for Maleah! Justice for Maleah! Justice for Maleah!" at her mother Brittany Bowens. Many wanting Bowens to face charges, since they feel she is just as responsible as Vence. She has not been named a suspect."
"Anyone who’s been around Maleah, and anyone who could have done harm to her, I would assume that the authorities are investigating that person, and looking into what they’ve done, and what they didn’t do, and what they could have done to bring harm to that child,” he says.
Derion Vence is expected to appear in court on July 10.