Daminga Parker, 28, finished a prison sentence in Raleigh Wednesday, but she was still awaiting trial for first-degree murder. Officials with thestate Department of Correction(DOC) in Raleigh claim they never received a detainer form from authorities in Cumberland County -- a form that would have kept Daminga Parker behind bars waiting to be tried for murder.
"In order for the Department of Correction to have legal authority to hold her on the pending charges, we needed to have a formal detainer filed with us, and that paperwork was never received," says DOC spokeswoman Tracy Little.
Little says a corrections officer placed a call Tuesday morning to let the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office know Parker would be set free Wednesday.
"Allegedly, they did make that phone call back here, but they didn't call the jail," she says. "What they normally do is call the D.A.'s office. The D.A.'s office handles those as a matter of routine."
The Sheriff's Office thought they had Parker, but as of 1 p.m. Friday afternoon, they discovered that they had the wrong woman.
While the search is still on for Parker, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney's office and the Department of Correction are reviewing their procedures. They want to plug up any holes in the system that would let other murder suspects slip out of custody.
Parker finished serving a sentence for possession of cocaine and a misdemeanor DWI offense. She was still facing charges of shooting Garren Hodge of Fayetteville last May.
Anyone with information on Parker's whereabouts should contact the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office at910-323-1500.
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