Defendant's in court - was supposed to be in jail

Some court officials were baffled Monday morning when Shamir Robinson walked into Room 708 of the Criminal Justice Center for a hearing in a 2009 robbery case. He was supposed to be in custody.

He still isn't.

Prison officials said yesterday that they accidentally released the 21-year-old convict from the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on Dec. 20 and that he disappeared from the courtroom Monday after he was questioned about why he was free.

He remained on the lam last night.

Robinson committed a robbery last year while on house arrest for the 2009 case, leading to his bail being revoked.

He was sentenced to two years probation for the 2010 robbery, but was then released after the 2009 case was mistakenly cleared in prison records, said prison spokesman Robert Eskind.

Eskind said that the 2009 case was misinterpreted in June 2010 by a records-room office.

Richard Boyd, the assistant district attorney handling the 2009 aggravated assault and robbery case, said that he informed Judge Peter F. Rogers, the prison and the crime victim that Robinson never should have been released.

"I thought he was in custody," he said.

The prison staff has notified the Pretrial Warrant Unit, and the Prison's Office of Professional Compliance is investigating Robinson's release.

"We're trying to figure out what happened," Eskind said.

"There are a lot of records, and interpreting judge's orders is not always easy. It could be an honest mistake."

Releases generally go through a process and are reviewed by a supervisor, but since Robinson was still in custody on the 2010 case, the records-room officer's action was not reviewed at that time, Eskind said.

According to court records, Robinson is accused of the gunpoint robbery of a man's cell phone and wallet containing his identification, credit cards and about $300, in an alley near Ruby and Arch streets in January 2009.

Robinson's rap sheet stretches back to 2007 with theft, assault and firearms arrests.

In addition to robbery, he pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana in 2007 and 2009.