The family of a young man who died last week want to know why they heard on the streets that the man accused of killing him had been released.
Markeyln Edmond, 20, died Wednesday morning after he was shot on South Refinery Street. Police arrested Jonathan Bargeman, 42, of Lafayette and booked him with second-degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm.
A few days later, his family learned through a friend that Bargeman was released. We checked with the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center, and records there show he posted bond of $125,000 for the murder charge and $25,000 for the weapons charge and was released.
Edmond's family wants to know why they had to hear about his release through the grapevine; they say they couldn't reach the detective in the case to get answers.
We reached out to the Lafayette Police Department. After some research, spokesman Sgt. Wayne Griffin called us back to let us know that the family did fill out the paperwork to be notified of Bargeman's release, but it wasn't turned in to the jail.
Griffin said there were two homicides that morning, and the homicide division was very busy and unfortunately this paperwork fell through the cracks. The supervisor called the family today to explain after we reached out.
"We're upset, we're highly upset," said Checquoline Davis-Roach, Markelyn's great aunt. "We weren't even notified. We didn't know he got out of jail. Now he's just out to be free? He gets out to be free and my nephew is dead and we're planning his funeral? No. No. That's not right."
Davis-Roach said her great-nephew was a fun person, a joker, always smiling. He never met a stranger, she said.
"He was just so out-going, happy-go-lucky," she said. He was the father of a little boy, Mason, who is not quite two years old. He was planning to be a truck driver, like his uncle, so he could "see the world."
"He was only 20 years old. He'd just started to live," she said. "And now he has a son that is never going to know him."
Davis-Roach said her family has never lost anyone to violence, and so they're all in shock.
"We want the people responsible brought to justice," she said of her family's feelings. "This was an unnecessary murder. It didn't have to happen like this. As the investigation goes on, we're going to find out more about it."
