Judge Simpson DEMANDS Answers After Defendant Cuts Off GPS Tether & Throws It In River!
Judge Simpson DEMANDS Answers After Defendant Cuts Off GPS Tether & Throws It In River!
Preview: A routine courtroom appearance took a chaotic turn when a defense attorney’s argument about his client’s GPS monitor was abruptly derailed by severe bond violations. Confronted about missing tracking equipment, the court learned that the defendant had not only failed to appear as required, but allegedly cut off his tether and tossed it into a river to evade law enforcement before accumulating multiple additional criminal holds.
A Disappearing Act and Missing Hardware
The courtroom drama unfolded as defense counsel attempted to secure a bond reduction for Lante Xavier Skinner Jr., assuring the bench that his client posed no flight risk. Highlighting local community ties, potential living arrangements with his mother in Inkster, and steady employment as a forklift operator at Ford, the defense argued that a Wayne County tether already in place proved his reliability.
However, that narrative instantly collapsed when the prosecution interjected with critical updates regarding the defendant’s compliance history. Prosecutors revealed that Skinner had previously failed to appear in court after cutting off his mandatory GPS tether entirely. When the judge pressed for the whereabouts of the missing device, corrections officials indicated that the hardware had been discarded into a river, leaving authorities with no active tracking signal.
A Mountaintop of Outstanding Warrants
The revelation of the destroyed tracking equipment opened the floodgates to a staggering list of legal entanglements across multiple jurisdictions. Prosecutors cataloged an extensive web of active holds and charges facing the defendant, including:
An outstanding hold out of Wayne County involving an alleged assault with bond denied.
A Garden City warrant carrying a $500 bond for arraignment.
A Lathrup Village hold for fraud with bond denied.
An Oakland County charge for stolen property with bond denied.
Faced with the missing hardware, unrecovered tracking equipment, and a multi-jurisdictional record of bench warrants, the bench made short work of the defense’s request. The motion for a bond reduction was swiftly denied, leaving the defendant remanded into custody to address the mounting legal fallout.
