STOCKTON-
A Sacramento family says a loved one would still be alive, were it not for prison realignment.
It’s a day Dallas Tillis will never forget, the day her phone rang and police told her Herbert Williams was dead.
“This is my final goodbye to my brother,” Tillis said.
Tillis says it’s a goodbye that didn’t have to happen so soon.
Williams was found dead from a gunshot wound in the middle South Lincoln Street in Stockton. From there, an all-out manhunt for the person who pulled the trigger.
“My brother was on the ground on a gurney,” Tillis said.
The homicide happened on Aug. 11. Detectives centered their investigation around 44-year-old Robert Lee White, a convicted sex offender who was paroled in February.
A wanted poster was circulated by Crime Stoppers, because White failed to register for a previous rape conviction. Eventually, police caught up to White and arrested him for failing to register in July.
White didn’t remain behind bars for long.
“I’m lost for words because if that could have been prevented, why wasn’t it?” Tillis said.
Tillis says her brother’s death didn’t have to happen.
FOX40 uncovered on July 24 a fugitive team arrested Robert White. According to San Joaquin County Court Records on July 31, White was released from jail. Then two weeks later, on Aug. 11, detectives say he committed a homicide.
“He should have never been released,” said Tillis.
San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office Spokesperson Les Garcia says it’s the law and White met criteria to be released.
“They let him go, that’s what angers me the most, because he was able to be free and do whatever he wanted to do,” Tillis said.
Tillis plans to fight against AB 109, she says the law has flaws and innocent families are left to suffer from the consequences.