SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Oct 1, 2023 marks four and a half years since bail reform legislation was passed by New York State legislatures. Bail reform has been a hot topic for as long as it’s been around in Syracuse. It has become somewhat common to overlook the fact that people other than the one in front of the judge are being affected.
Sarah Tombs was shot and killed by her boyfriend in 2019. The timeline of her case matches up almost identically to the events that unfolded with bail reform. Her boyfriend pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide, getting pretrial release under the new legislation and then only receiving five years of probation.
Sarah’s mother now takes care of her granddaughter.
“It’s not about the victims. It’s about the criminals,” Jennifer Payne said. “I mean come on that’s totally not even fair. I was put in a place where I didn’t matter. Mariana didn’t matter. It was all about him. And quite frankly who gives a crap about him. He just took my daughter.”
The word that comes to mind is accountability. Or the lack thereof.
Mark Abraham was a Syracuse Police Officer for 33 years.
“Ever since bail reform was enacted homicides have gone up, robberies have gone up, crimes have gone up. And there’s no punishment out there. There’s no fear in the legal system anymore. So when the dog doesn’t have any teeth it can bark all it wants but there’s no bite,” Abraham said.
In Syracuse, the biggest increase in felonies is motor vehicle thefts. Steve Dougherty was a judge in Syracuse for 20 years. He recognizes that many of these thefts are done by teenagers.
“Teenagers, young teens, early twenties, their brains aren’t fully developed. We’ve seen the studies. We know that. But is the best thing then to put them back without supervision into the community and have more crime and more innocent people violated? You know there’s a fine line, but we’ve erased the line. We [being] the legislature,” Dougherty explained.
On Sept. 26 it was announced that the teenager that stole a car, crashing it through the show room window was out on a visit from a detention center.
This news comes a year after a different teenager was was charged with the murder of an 11-year-old girl. He was also on a visit home from a detention center.