Krasner Strikes Again: Man In U Haul With Human Torso Was Registered Sex Offender, Accused Burglar Let Out Of Jail On No Bail

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The man riding around town yesterday in a U-Haul with a dismembered human torso in back is a registered sex offender with a long rap sheet featuring more than a dozen arrests. 

Taray Herring, 47, of Northeast Philadelphia, who confessed to police that he hacked up the victim's body but claimed he didn't kill anybody, was most recently let out of jail last June on a burglary rap, after a judge decided Herring didn't have to post any bail.

On May 9, 2020, Herring's bail for the burglary case had been set at $10,000 monetary, meaning he would have to post $1,000 to get out of jail. But on June 9, 2020, after the public defender filed a motion on Herring's behalf to modify his bail, Judge James DeLeon decided that instead of $10,000 monetary bail, he would set Herring's bail at $10,000 unsecured.

That meant that Herring didn't have to post a cent to get out of jail. And where was the D.A's office on that request? Standing up to protect the public? Nope. "By agreement of the Commonwealth," court records say, with a pandemic on, the D.A.'s office went along with the public defender's motion to spring Herring, so he wouldn't come down with COVID.

District Attorney Larry Krasner and Jane Roh, his spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Krasner and Roh also declined to explain why, a year before the burglary arrest, in 2019, the D.A.'s office gave Herring lenient treatment. They let him plead guilty to a misdemeanor and granted him probation in a plea bargain for stealing a car, when the D.A. could have put prosecuted Herring on felony charges, and kept him in jail. 

In both 2019 and 2020, Herring was accused of violating his parole, with both the stolen car arrest and the burglary arrest. But both times the D.A.'s office gave Herring a pass and let him back out on the street. 

Last June, the D.A.'s office did one more favor for Herring: they asked a judge to waive a detainer filed by the county Probation Department against Herring that would have kept him in jail without bail until a hearing on the probation violation would have been held. 

That's why criminals call our D.A. "Uncle Larry," because he's their best friend.

At 9 .m. yesterday, police got a call about a burglary in progress involving a U-Haul truck parked outside a house at 1011 Sanibel Street in the Somerton section of the city. When the cops arrived at the scene, they observed a U-Haul truck with Arizona license plates traveling south of Kelvin Avenue.

"The vehicle pulled over, and as soon as the officers got out of the car the driver of the U-Haul just came right out the door and said, 'I don't want anything to do with this,' and 'There's a body in the back,'" Sgt. Eric Gripp told 6ABC.

Officers searched the back of the van and found a trash bag with a dismembered human torso inside.

Herring, along with the driver, David Kirby, 43, didn't attempt to escape and both were taken into custody, Sgt. Gripp told 6ABC. A police source said that neither man has been charged, but that Herring confessed to having dismembered the victim's body.

Last night, police found a human leg and a hand in a dumpster behind a nearby Wawa at Kelvin Street and Bustleton Avenue, 6ABC reported. Police said the body parts could have belonged to the same victim.

Sgt. Gripp told 6ABC that police had been summoned by a neighbor to check up on Peter Gerold, 70, a licensed massage therapist who operated out of his house on Sanibel Street. Neighbors told cops that Gerold was missing, and so were his cars.

Herring, after he was Mirandized, gave a voluntary statement where he claimed that he didn't kill the victim, but he did dismember him. According to police, Herring told the cops that after he hacked up the victim with an electric saw and a hacksaw, he deep fried various body parts, wrapped them in plastic, and disposed of them in various dumpsters in the 10800 block of Proctor Road.

Kirby told the cops he was helping Herring dispose of trash from the house and claimed he was initially unaware that a human torso was in one of the trash bags. Police recovered other human remains from various dumpsters and transported them to the Medical Examiner's office. 

Police recovered blood swabs, a knife, and burnt clothing from the burglarized home. In the U-Haul, in addition to the human torso, the cops found numerous bloody saws, a pair of gloves and kitchen utensils.

Herring, according to the cops, is a registered sex offender who lived in an apartment at 600 Red Lion Road. He's described as a 5-foot-7, 160 pound black male who's bald and has a tattoo on his chest. 

On May 8, 2020, Herring was arrested and charged with burglary, criminal trespass that resulted in bodily injury, theft, receiving stolen property, and criminal mischief. A month later, he got out of jail without having to post bail. 

Since Herring got out of jail, the preliminary hearing in his case was canceled twice, and continued twice. The most recent continuance was on Jan. 6th, after a request was made by Herring's lawyer. 

Herring has a busy rap sheet which in recent years shows some favorable treatment from the D.A.'s office under Larry Krasner.

One of Herring's early arrests was in 1993, when he was found guilty of defiant trespass, aggravated assault and possessing instruments of crime. He was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in jail, and a minimum of three years probation.

In 2000, Herring pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, indecent assault and possession of instruments of crime, and was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in jail.

In 2012, he pleaded guilty to harassment and simple assault, and got one to two years in jail and up to two years probation in allegations that involved four different victims. A charge of indecent assault was withdrawn.

A knowledgable source said that Herring was accused of riding down Broad Street on a bicycle and grabbing several women's butts. 

In 2013, he was found guilty of harassment, and indecent assault, and was sentenced to a minimum of 9 to 18 months in jail on the indecent assault charge. 

On Jan. 10, 2019, while he was still on probation, Herring was arrested for stealing a car. He was charged with theft, and receiving stolen property,  two third-degree felonies, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a second-degree misdemeanor.

But in a plea bargain arranged by the generous D.A.'s office, the two felony charges were dropped, and Herring pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor, unauthorized use of a  motor vehicle.

He was put on probation for a maximum of 18 months. He also got no further penalty for violating his probation.

Herring was still on probation for the stolen car on May 8, 2020, when he was arrested for burglary. But once again, the D.A. went easy on Herring, by not prosecuting him for violating parole. 

A month later, Herring was let out of jail without having to post any bail. Herring also got a couple of more breaks from the D.A.'s office.

On June 10, 2020, the county Probation Department filed an arrest warrant for Herring alleging that the burglary arrest had violated Herring's parole.

On June 15, 2020, the Probation Department also filed a detainer against Herring alleging a parole violation because of Herring's burglary arrest. The detainer would have kept Herring in jail without bail until a hearing on the probation violation was held.

But the D.A.'s office told the judge to lift the detainer and Herring was free to continue his criminal career.

Carlos Vega, who's running in the May 18th Democratic primary for District Attorney against Krasner, was shaking his head when he heard about Herring's release from jail on no bail.

"It's another tragedy that could have been avoided," Vega said. He compared this latest outrage with two recent cases when a dog walker was killed and an ex-wife was murdered by her ex-husband.

In both cases, the D.A.'s office was responsible for not keeping armed and dangerous criminals in jail.

"If the D.A had done its job," Vega said, another murder victim might still be alive.

But once again, the D.A.'s office failed to do it's job.

"And I don't know," Vega said, "whether it's due to incompetence or laziness or they just plain don't care."

UPDATE: On Saturday Feb. 13th, Herring was arrested and charged with burglary, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence. He is being held without bail.