MEMPHIS, TN - The owner of three pitbulls that attacked a Cordova woman sits in jail on a $500,000 bond. But the South Memphis mom who left her two babies home alone to die in a house fire is still a free woman.
Eyewitness News viewers want to know where's the justice in that?
62-year-old Helen Marshall, the dog attack victim, was badly mauled but will survive. The dogs' owner, Andre Robinson, was arrested hours after the crime and sent to jail on aggravated assault charges.
It's been two weeks since the Effie Road house fire killed 2-year-old Catereon Dunn and his 3-year-old brother Ladereon. Two weeks and still no charges for their mother, 24-year-old Melanie Dunn.
"She should be punished!" says West Memphis resident Lisa Perry. "She really should be punished."
Perry says everyone she works with has been discussing Dunn's story and wondering, like so many other Mid-Southerners, why Dunn hasn't been arrested.
"I understand the public's outrage," Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons tells myEyewitnessNews.com. "And I'm outraged as well."
Gibbons says a homicide case involving fire takes time, more time than a straightforward dog attack case. His office has been waiting on evidence from the Memphis Police Department, the Memphis Fire Department and the Shelby County Medical Examiner.
"We've pretty much received everything at this point," he says, "which means we will be in a position to make a decision shortly."
The decision to arrest dog owner Andre Robinson and jail him on a half million dollar bond, on the other hand, happened less than 48 hours after Robinson's three pit bulls attacked neighbor Helen Marshall. Investigators say she was bitten more than 50 times on her hands and arms while she was out on her morning walk last Thursday, October 29, 2009. Her dog, Skye, was also seriously wounded.
"We had a couple of occurences out there earlier in the year," says Shelby County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Steve Shular. "Those occurences were in March and April. Deputies had gone out there based on calls from the neighbors saying those dogs were out."
Shular says those previous incidents, and the fact that Andre Robinson is a convicted felon who served prison time for aggravated robbery and burglary, factored into Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee's decision to set a steep $500,000 bond for Robinson.
"He took into account the suspect's history," says Shular, "which is something they do when they set a bond. They look at any past criminal behaviors. But more importantly, they look for past convictions."
Robinson's family members and attorney say his bond is too high and will seek a lower bond at his next court hearing. Helen Marshall's family believes the bond is justified because Robinson's dogs, they say, have terrified their Cordova neighborhood for months.
As for the Effie Road fire case, DA Gibbons says he's close to a decision.
"I will simply say that we pretty much feel we have what we need in order to make that decision," says Gibbons. "And it will be made soon."
And soon can't come fast enough for Mid-Southerners like Lisa Perry, who've been following the tragic story of the little boys' death from the very beginning.
"Soon?" she asks with a look of shock on her face. "How about now? This morning. Yesterday. It should of been done!"
