Breaking Bond: 18-year-old gets sweetheart deal from judge for weapons charges, now accused of murder
HOUSTON - Even though he had repeatedly been caught with guns, including machine guns, 337th Criminal District Court Judge Colleen Gaido wanted to give Duley Blake a big break.
A decision that turned deadly.
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"Four gun charges total on a guy who just turned 18-years-old," said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers.
According to court documents, Duley Blake has a thing for guns, especially machine guns.
"You got a guy that has a propensity to run around the street with guns," said Doug Griffith, President of the Houston Police Union. "Who knows what he's doing with them, is he robbing people with them? Is he terrorizing them?"
On March 9, Judge Gaido gave Blake a chance to have no felony conviction on his record if he pled guilty, he would get deferred probation.
"They gave him every chance in the world, and they could have thrown the book at him, but they didn't," Kahan said.
"For him to be given deferred probation for something like that, especially since he's had three prior carrying a weapon charges, that's a problem," Griffith said.
Court documents state the court expressed concerns about the offer, but Judge Gaido granted Blake the sweetheart deal.
"I wish I could say she was apprehensively wrong, but sadly she was spot on, and Robin Strong ended up paying the price," said Kahan.
Just two days after getting deferred probation, police say Blake shot and killed 32-year-old Robin Strong. It happened at a motel in the 1600 block of the North Freeway.
"This individual arrived here at the motel along with another unknown male," said Sgt Jason Brown with the Harris County Sheriff's Office during a March 11 interview. "Once they arrived here, they went to one of the rooms at the hotel, there was some type of disturbance there, and our complainant was shot."
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"My first name is Duley, my last name is Blake," Blake said during an appearance in Probable Cause Court on April 13.
Keep in mind Blake hasn't been charged yet with murder.
"The defendant was driving a car stopped on traffic," the magistrate said. "The passenger got out and ran, the defendant got out and ran. The officers found a loaded Glock on the front seat modified to be a machine gun. The defendant had two loaded magazines in his pocket."
The next day, April 14, Blake is charged with murdering Robin Strong.
"Now where are we sitting," Griffith said. "Another innocent person dead because of the actions of our court system."