Dallas man accused of killing 4, including baby, was out on bond at the time
DALLAS - The man who killed four people including a 1-year-old boy in Dallas Sunday was not supposed to be near the family.
Byron Carrillo, who took his own life when law enforcement had him cornered in Austin, had a domestic violence charge for assaulting some of those family members back in 2021.
The case had not yet gone to court.
Court records show Carrillo was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He then posted his $50,000 bond.
"So, it looks like he got arrested in August 2021 and he got bond set at that time," said Lisa McKnight, an attorney not involved in the case.
He was ordered to appear for all scheduled court settings, have no direct contact with the alleged victims or go near them, and not possess a deadly weapon.
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"And the grand jury indicted him after that and there was a lot of passes," McKnight said.
McKnight said passes are just that – when scheduled court dates are skipped.
"You have to understand first of all people that are in jail are entitled to a speedy trial and they get one and those are priority for scheduling purposes. And so, it’s not uncommon for people that are out of jail to want to pass their case," she said.
For more than two years, the case was passed. Carrillo remained out of jail on bond during that time.
"It’s not uncommon to see it now two years for this. I don’t know. I don’t know the statistics on that, but I wasn’t surprised to see that," McKnight said.
Then, Carrillo was arrested again in October.
"He failed to appear for a court appearance in October," McKnight said. "So, his bond was revoked as a result of that."
He was arrested, jailed, and given a new bond of $100,000. A leg monitor was added as a condition of his new bond.
"If there were new charges that would be grounds to revoke his bond, and he should be sitting in jail that would be the only way to stop somebody like this. If they’re just bent on violating, conditions of bond don’t really stop them," McKnight said.
"How do you know which ones should be put in jail?" the reporter asked.
"That’s the hard part and we can’t just you know be throwing people in jail out of precaution. And you know, that’s the hard part," the attorney said.
Carrillo paid the 10% down on his $100,000 bond in late November. He was fitted with an electronic leg monitor and placed under the supervision of pre-trial services.
But on Dec. 3, there was a notice of his leg monitor being tampered with and pre-trial moved to get an arrest warrant.
By then, four family members including a 1-year-old boy were dead.
McKnight said Carrillo should not have been allowed to live next door to his victims when a condition of his bond required him to have no direct contact.
"If he wants to be out on bond, he needs to find a different place to live while he’s out on bond. Because his choices are, do you want to be in jail, or do you want to be away from the victim? You know, he needed to be away from the victim," she said.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said the police, the DA, and the victims' civil attorney all knew Carrillo lived next door. The judge in the case should have known as well.
But FOX 4 could find no documents with stipulations on where he could live.