Lee Evans has finally made bail while awaiting trial for five counts of murder. He and his co-defendant Philander Hampton are suspected of killing the still-missing Clinton Avenue Five in 1978: Melvin Pittman, Randy Johnson, Michael McDowell, Ernest Taylor and Alvin Turner. Bail was initially set at five million dollars, then lowered to $1.25 million, and now to just under $1 million, and Evans and his family were able to come up with property worth that much. It will most likely be years before this case goes to trial and I’m sure Evans is happy he won’t have to be in jail all that time.
Authorities have made an arrest in the 1999 disappearance and presumed murder of three-year-old Pilar Rodriguez. They’re not saying who, how or why, but promise to release more info this afternoon.
I found this article about Sarah Lee Murray, a fourteen-year-old who’s been missing since 1997. I don’t have much on her and I still don’t, but the article provides a little more info. She’s apparently an orphan who was living with relatives at the time of her disappearance.
It has now been nine months and then some since Ilya Lastovkin disappeared. He was 22 and suffering from depression, and he’d left home before, but never for longer than a day or two.
Lastly, in two days it’ll be exactly one year since Jaycee Dugard was found safe.
The Charley Project Blog 
I think they knew who killed Pilar Rodriguez, so it’s not much of a guess who they arrested.
WTF? I’ve seen people who aren’t charged with killing anybody and who don’t get bail at all! First I ever heard of somebody getting bail at all, never mind getting it lowered, when they’re acused of killing FIVE people!
So how much money did this Evans’s family actualy have to raise? Is ti ten percent or something?
He better stay where he’s at now or he’s going to have some very upset relatives.
I believe the standard is 10% of the bail in cash (the bail bondsman comes up with the rest), or the full amount in property. They had the property.
How does anybody make any money doing bonds then? Or am I missing something? If the bond is 1.5 mil then ten percent is $150k. Ok, so say you’re doing the bond, the relatives or whoever gives you $150k in some form or other, and you put up the rest. Then if all goes well and he doesn’t jump and disapear you get your own money back so you only made $150k in profit. And not too many bonds are for that kind of money as $1.5 million.
I guess its a good thing I don’t try to make money that way. I like a sure thing and a steady pay check. 🙂 If I want to gamble a little I’ll go to the slots and have a nice dinner along with it. 🙂
ONLY $150k? $150k is quite a lot of money. Assuming Evans goes to trial in two years and the bondsman gets his money back, that’s $75k per year, which a family can live very comfortably on. And I’m sure that’s not the only bond the bondsman is dealing with.
A person can make a great deal of money doing bonds, and without too much labor. Most people who get arrested are facing much less serious charges, get much lower bonds, and will be facing trial or a plea bargain a lot sooner. So, say, your bond is $10,000, you give $1,000 to the bail bondsman, and in three or four months your case is concluded and he gets his money back and keeps your $1k on top of it. Which doesn’t seem like much, but if you’ve got like twenty arrestees you’re dealing with, you can accumulate quite a lot of money in a relatively short time. Of course it’s risky and you have to deal with some unsavory people, but there are definite advantages.
Also, when people skip out on a bail bondsman, very often he goes after them himself. If he catches them and drags them back to the court, he often gets his money, or at least part of it, back as a reward.
Pilar’s babysitter, who was with her when she disappeared, was arrested. Melissa (Cooper, married and changed her last name) Jones. They just released it.
What I want to know is why was Pilar with her baby sitter on the sitter’s vacation? I mean, when the the sitter goes on vacation doesn’t that mean she isn’t baby sitting? That’s just wierd. I loved all the kids I sat for but I didn’t love any of them so much that I would want to take them on my own vacation.