Jackson Jambalaya

CL story:

A Canton man accused of kidnapping and attempted carjacking in Madison is out of jail after his $1.5 million bond was reduced by almost 97 percent.

Madison County Circuit Court Judge William Chapman dropped the bond for Marcus George, 36, to $50,000 in a hearing Tuesday.

State Rep. Ed Blackmon Jr., George's attorney, called the hearing on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to obtain bond, a routine matter.

He would not comment further.

"It does my client no good," he said.

George, charged in the May 6 crime in the Cobblestone neighborhood of Madison, was released on the $50,000 bond Tuesday after the hearing.

In the petition filed in Circuit Court on May 13, Blackmon said the bond was "unreasonable, unconstitutional and tantamount to no bond at all."

The petition asked for a "reasonable and not excessive" bond.

Chapman, in court documents, found George's petition to be "well taken and should be sustained."

George was arrested on May 10.

Madison police said he allegedly followed a woman to a Madison home after she shopped in north Jackson and stopped at a Ridgeland gas station. The woman told police a man carrying a gun approached her car after she stopped in back of the house belonging to her mother.

During a tussle inside the car, the woman pushed the gun away and kneed the man, causing the car horn to blow, according to the police report. Her mother came out, and the man ran away.

Madison police said detectives used a computer program to develop a facial sketch from the woman's description and compared that to a criminal database, which led to George's arrest.

Madison Municipal Court Judge Dale Danks Jr., who set the original bond, defended his decision last month.

"You have to examine the nature of the crime," he told The Clarion-Ledger. "While I can't talk about the case, it, in fact, carries a charge of carjacking with a weapon and attempted kidnapping.

"And that's pretty serious."

Serious enough to get out of the tanning bed, eh? :)

Pat on the back to Capt. Tan for the $1.5 million bond. Should of stuck.

That was a serious crime. If he did it, and is found guilty he likewise should SERIOUS time.

I would hope that I would have the presence of mind this victim did, who showed him that his plan was not going to go down as he had planned.

Don't begrudge a man his tan, people. Dale has his own tanning bed, anyway. I wonder does Obama tax your personal tanning bed too.

And when I commented on the CL website about how they did not make an arrest based on the composite alone, the everybody's-innocent crowd tried to scorch me. This proves, again, the CL isn't worth the ink wasted on in printing it.

Got carjacked (and kidnapped) at the Shell across the street from Sal & Phil's on Old Canton Road in 2001...no fingerprint attempts from Ridgeland PD.