Latin Kings suspect released from Sarasota County

[News Flash]

SARASOTA COUNTY - A robbery defendant who detectives believe is a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings gang in Florida is free because of a prosecutor's paperwork mistake.

Authorities believe Jorge Estarellas is a high-ranking gang member.

Deputies arrested Jorge R. Estarellas, 19, of Miami, after he was identified as one of three men who tried to take a woman's jewelry and clothing outside a restaurant on Bee Ridge Road in May.

Estarellas was scheduled to go to trial today, and faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

But Estarellas left the jail Friday night after a judge ruled Assistant State Attorney Jason Miller incorrectly filed the robbery charge earlier in the week.

The reason is tangled in legal procedural rules designed to protect a defendant's rights to a "speedy trial," which requires prosecutors to bring charges within a certain time after the arrest.

Miller dismissed the original robbery charge against Estarellas Nov. 10 and replaced it with one that adds two victims and the attempt to take a purse.

Miller says he learned of two more robbery victims from the same attack and wanted those women included in the case.

"I don't think I did anything wrong," Miller said.

Defense attorney Betsy Sinphay-Young said adding the victims to the same robbery charge is the same as levying new charges, and it had been more than 175 days since the arrest.

New charges cannot be added that long after an arrest, as Estarellas had not waived his right to a speedy trial, said Sinphay-Young, a former prosecutor.

That meant Circuit Judge Deno Economou had to dismiss the robbery count with...

Jorge Estarellas is a high-ranking gang member:


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High ranking gang member. This smuck deserves a pine box six foot under. He wouldnt know a gang if it bit him in the arse. Why do we even print this crap in the paper. Not that they can even read english none the less. Let em kill each other and deport anyone left standing.

[News Flash]

Follow-up story:

SARASOTA COUNTY - A circuit judge has reversed his decision that freed a robbery defendant who police also believe to be a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings gang in Florida.

Circuit Judge Deno Economou ruled Friday that Jorge R. Estarellas, 19, of Miami, should be taken back into custody to face a robbery charge that Economou dismissed a week earlier.

Economou's first order meant Estarellas left the Sarasota County jail and headed back home without having to worry about the charge.

But Economou ruled Friday that his first ruling was based on an oversight.

Economou had thrown out the only robbery count against Estarellas, ruling that a prosecutor's paperwork mistake had violated Estarellas' right to a speedy trial, which requires the state to bring charges within a certain time after the arrest.

The judge also told Assistant State Attorney Jason Miller at a hearing, "You shot yourself in the foot, as far as I'm concerned."

But Economou said Friday that when he ruled the first time, he did not know Estarellas' public defender had signed a paper waiving the defendant's right to a speedy trial, long before Estarellas hired a private attorney.

The document was in the court record the entire time, but ...

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Hopefully this trash only getts erased from society and doesnt hurt someone else because between the judge,PD and SAO. Lucyyyyy juuuuuu got sum eeeexxxxplaining tooodo

He'll get his sooner or later. Jason Miller is a great ASA. Crap like this happens all the time in every jurisdication. When we have ASA's with 300-400 cases at a time it's suprising this doesn't happen more.