ATLANTA — A father held on to the hood of a stolen SUV as the thief drove away with his son inside.
Channel 2 Action News has learned the accused carjacker never faced trial because he is mentally incompetent.
And now the teen and his younger brother are charged with murder.
One juvenile court defender said finding that 16-year-old incompetent may not have been in his best interest.
Channel 2's Mark Winne found the 2015 case both in Fulton County juvenile court files pertaining to Charlie McDaniel and in our own files at the station.
Surveillance video showed Malcolm Milliones jumping on his fiancé’s SUV as a car thief was trying to steal it with his 8-year-old son inside.
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At one point, the boy inside jumped out. He was not seriously injured but Milliones suffered some injuries when he was thrown off the SUV.
We found what appears to be the same case at juvenile court after getting an order from a judge allowing us to inspect McDaniel’s records.
He and his brother Isaac were accused of murder in November. A public defender has said he anticipates both will plead not guilty.
More than a year earlier in the Milliones case, records suggest Charlie McDaniel basically admitted involvement but denied driving the car with the boy inside.
Nonetheless, a petition accused him of robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
But an order indicates that is one of at least six cases affected because Charlie McDaniel was found not mentally competent.
Juvenile Court Judge Willie Lovett said that basically put the case on hold and because of the combination of how the juvenile code works and lack of resources, McDaniel was released back on the street with a treatment plan before the murder.
Adeline Alexander told Winne she sees many cases as juvenile court conflict defender and incompetency worked against McDaniel.
“It did. Because based on the lack of resources and what we had to eventually do which was release him from jail, that was what had him in the situation where he picked up this case. [The murder case?] The murder case,” Alexander said.
McDaniel’s file also described an encounter with an officer in June and suggests the teen said, "They ain’t gonna do anything but let me out anyway, I’m incompetent.”