Bond revoked for murder suspect who was free for 1 day
Bond has been revoked for a Hartsville man whose brief freedom from jail recently sparked a debate about granting bonds for murder suspects.
On Aug. 18, a circuit judge revoked bond for Freddy Ray Harris III, who is charged in the slaying of another Hartsville man in 2019. A few weeks ago, Harris was freed from jail on a $100,000 bond, but was returned to jail a day later for allegedly violating the terms of his bond.
The exact nature of the violation remained unclear until the bond-revocation hearing. WPDE-TV reported that Harris had been ordered not to leave his home, and that a GPS tracking monitor alerted authorities when he walked outside to smoke a cigarette.
The Darlington County Sheriff’s Office responded with its Special Incident Response Team, Sheriff’s Bloodhound Tracking Team and Criminal Investigations Division. One witness said “there were at least 10 cars” at Harris’ home.
Friends of the slain man, Kurt Russell Scholl, had protested a judge’s decision to grant Harris bond to begin with.