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Copyright © 2016 Albuquerque Journal

Accused murderer Charles Robinson was released from jail last October after the

District Attorney’s Office failed to order DNA tests needed to prosecute his case.

Since his release, Robinson has been implicated in four new cases and now faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault.

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The mother of the man police say Robinson shot and killed remains bitter about his release and said she was stunned to learn that he had been arrested in connection with another violent crime.

“I was furious, absolutely livid,” said Joy Melancon from her home in Louisiana.

Her son, Thomas Manuel, 25, was shot to death in Tijeras in May 2014 after sheriff’s deputies say he and Robinson, 38, had an altercation at a friend’s house.

Robinson was arrested a couple weeks after the shooting, but more than a year later, the DA’s Office had yet to order tests on his DNA.

With Robinson’s trial only 40 days away and without DNA evidence or cooperative witnesses, prosecutors agreed to drop charges against Robinson with an option to refile.

In court records and statements to the Journal, the District Attorney’s Office cited a couple of factors for the delay in testing the DNA, including an oversight by a staff member. And District Attorney Kari Brandenburg pointed to new speedy trial rules issued by the Supreme Court as a factor in the dismissal.

The District Attorney’s Office said the DNA was critical because it would prove that Robinson was at the scene of the crime. The only eye witness, who originally named Robinson as the shooter, later refused to testify, according to court transcripts.

Several delays

After the deadly shooting on May 23, 2014, deputies say Robinson fled the state. He was arrested a couple of weeks later in Wyoming and extradited to Bernalillo County in December 2014.

In mid-August 2015, the state asked Robinson’s DNA be taken with a cheek swab, a move his attorney opposed, saying if prosecutors wanted his DNA they should have taken it earlier.

“The state has chosen not to attempt to obtain these standards for eight months,” said attorney Randy Chavez. “Defendant contends that the standards are being requested in an attempt to gather additional evidence in an otherwise weak case.”

Chavez didn’t return calls for comment.

It is unclear from court records why the District Attorney’s Office waited so long before collecting Robinson’s DNA, and a spokesman for the office did not respond to questions about the delay.

The judge granted the order and deputies collected Robinson’s DNA on Sept. 3, 2015.

Then there was another delay, and this time the judge did not side with the prosecution.

At a motion hearing nearly two months after Robinson’s swabs were taken, Assistant District Attorney Kara Kupper told the court that her office had yet to order tests on those samples.

“I asked my paralegal to order the DNA from the defendant’s buccal (cheek swab) that the court ordered be taken, and I asked her to do that the first week of September,” Kupper said, according to a transcript of the Oct. 28 hearing. “Because of an oversight on her part, she did not get that done.”

Given the rapidly approaching trial date, which was about 40 days away, Judge Alisa Hadfield asked Kupper if she would prefer to exclude all scientific evidence from the case or have the charges against Robinson dismissed without prejudice, meaning the case can be refiled at any time.

Kupper agreed to having the charges dismissed.

Hadfield filed an order dismissing the case due to the “state’s failure to provide scientific evidence by the deadline in the scheduling order” and the state’s uncooperative eyewitness.

Robinson was released from jail eight hours later.

In response to questions about the oversight in seeking DNA tests, Brandenburg stated that the case might have had a different outcome if new orders had not been in place aimed at speedier trials.

Racking up charges

About six months later, William Martinez, 33, was shot and killed during an argument in his friend’s Southeast Albuquerque apartment.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Robinson was in the apartment when his cousin allegedly shot and killed Martinez.

The man who lived in the apartment told detectives that he jumped out the window and saw Robinson pointing a gun at him and shooting as he ran away. He wasn’t hit.

Robinson was indicted on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The charges are one of several he has picked up since his release from jail last year.

In February, Robinson was charged with possession of burglary tools.

A couple months later, he was charged with racketeering and 20 counts of forgery for his part in a fake tax scheme in March, according to online court records.

In mid-May, while in jail for the aggravated assault case, deputies say Robinson was one of as many as 43 inmates who threw towels over security cameras and blocked all exits and entrances to the recreation yard while three inmates attacked a corrections officer. He was charged with assault by a prisoner, conspiracy and unlawful assault on a jail.

Mother keeps watch

Melancon said she is hopeful the new charges against Robinson will lead to his conviction.

“Just make sure all the i’s are dotted this time and the t’s are crossed,” she said.

Melancon said that, since Robinson was released last year, she has been following him on Facebook and keeps in touch with his estranged mother and half brother.

“I felt the need (to keep track of him) because I was upset by it,” she said. “He gets to spend time with his children, he got to be home for Thanksgiving, and he got to be home for Christmas, when my son couldn’t be.”

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