ORLANDO, Fla. – When John Michael DeJesus appeared in front of Orange County Judge Shoemaker at the Orange County jail on Friday, it was his second initial appearance in a week.
DeJesus was answering for possessing a gun as a convicted felon. The stolen gun had been discovered at the house he shared with his girlfriend Yoliz Marie Borerro, who was murdered at the home on Wednesday.
DeJesus had claimed to Orange County Sheriff's Deputies that 3 masked men stormed into the home and shot Borerro but on Friday a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office said that was a lie.
DeJesus was arrested right after the murder for drugs that deputies say they'd found at the home in southeast Orlando.
At his second initial appearance on Friday morning, a public defender told the judge, "Before you take action on that bond, he was arrested yesterday on that [drug] charge and he bonded out. Then the police wanted to question him further. When he stopped cooperating they arrested him again on the alleged offense of the grand theft and the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. They knew about that charge when they arrested him on the possession of the drugs, he did not commit a new law offense upon his release, and therefore his bond should not be revoked on that case."
The prosecutor countered with DeJesus' lengthy criminal past but did not bring up the arrest affidavit written by Orange County Sheriff's detectives, who described DeJesus as the prime suspect in the murder of Borerro.
Detectives wrote in the affidavit that first degree murder charges were forthcoming, that Dejesus is a "flight risk," that the "probability of intimidation to the victims and witnesses is high," and that "the probability the defendant will flee... is high."
The detective wrote about the "danger which the defendant's release poses to the community" and asked for a "no bond status."
The judge set bond for the gun charge at $3,500, which DeJesus posted over the weekend.
Local 6 legal analyst Luis Calderon said in case the judge had not seen the affidavit, which he should have, the prosecutor should have brought the arrest affidavit to the attention of the judge. But Calderon also said it wouldn't have made a difference because none of the detective's concerns were proven.
Calderon said if detectives had charged DeJesus with murder as they had promised they would, the judge likely would not have granted bond.
A spokesperson for the Orange/Osceola State Attorney's Office did not immediately respond when Local 6 asked why the prosecutor did not mention the arrest affidavit at the bond hearing.
DeJesus remains at large on bond.