Krasner Strikes Again: D.A. Previously Dropped A Dozen Charges Against Man Held For Manslaughter In Death Of 10-Year-Old Niece

by Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

 

When the D.A.'s office charged Tyree Miles with involuntary manslaughter  after his 10-year-old niece shot herself to death with her uncle's gun, Larry Krasner gave a speech about how Miles had to be held accountable for the girl's death.

Climbing up on his soapbox, Krasner used the tragic death of a child as an opportunity to lecture the rest of us about who's responsible in this country for gun violence. 

The D.A. proceeded to attack "greedy gun manufacturers, the NRA’s cultish following, and the craven politicians they fund and support." He also called on state and federal officials to enact new laws to further regulate guns.

But here's what the grandstanding D.A. failed to do. Larry Krasner never held himself accountable, or his incompetent prosecutors, or the lax policies in his office that are responsible for not enforcing all of the gun laws currently on the books. Larry Krasner never accepted any culpability for the tragic death of 10-year-old Shanyiah Gaines Miles.

Court records, however, show that over a 21-month period that preceded Miles's arrest for involuntary manslaughter after his niece killed herself with his gun, the 28-year-old Miles was arrested three times after he allegedly attacked his girlfriend, then the cops, and finally, his mother, brother, and other relatives. Miles also had a history of carrying illegal guns.

And how did Larry Krasner's D.A.'s office handle Miles on three different occasions over that 21-month period when they were prosecuting him in court? 

Why on three different occasions the D.A.'s office voluntarily decided to dismiss a total of a dozen charges against Miles, including three counts of simple assault, three counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of possession of an instrument of crime, one count of terroristic threats, one count of possession of a prohibited firearm, and one count of carrying firearms in public. 

On three different occasions, the D.A.'s office failed to hold Miles responsible for his actions. 

On three different occasions, the D.A.'s office failed to protect the public by putting Miles away for some serious jail time. 

If the D.A.'s office had done what it was supposed to do, a certain 10-year-old girl might still be alive today. 

But Larry Krasner will never tell you that. 

And neither will the rest of the news media in this town, led by The Philadelphia Inquirer, which continues to downplay violent crime while actively covering up the D.A.'s atrocious record.

I'll get into that all of that in more detail down below. But first let's take a look at the rap sheet of Tyree Miles.

Strike One

On Nov. 9, 2019 Miles was arrested after he allegedly beat his girlfriend and robbed her of her cell phone. The crime allegedly occurred while police were there at the scene, but the D.A.'s office never charged Miles with robbery or aggravated assault.

Although the girlfriend had what police described as "significant injuries," the D.A.'s office only charged Miles with simple assault and reckless endangerment. 

And what happened when Miles went to court?

On Jan. 13, 2020, in front of Judge James DeLeon, according to court records, the D.A.'s office voluntarily withdrew both charges against Miles, for simple assault and reckless endangerment. 

Strike Two

On Dec. 31, 2019, Miles allegedly pointed a gun at a cop after a vehicle pursuit that ended in a  foot race. The gun Miles possessed was stolen, the cops said. 

The D.A.'s office charged Miles with seven counts, including aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, and carrying a firearm without a license.

On the day he was arrested, bail was set at $75,000 monetary, meaning the defendant had to put up a 10% deposit of $7,500 to get out of jail. But on Jan 14, 2020, his bail was reduced to $20,000 monetary, meaning he had to put down a 10% deposit of $2,000 to get out of jail.

What happened when the case went to court?

On March 3, 2020, in a non-negotiated guilty plea, Miles was sentenced by Judge Rayford Means in what court records describe as a non-negotiated guilty plea to five years probation on the charges of aggravated assault and carrying a firearm without a license. 

On that same day, the judge sentenced Miles to two years probation for resisting arrest.

Strike Three

On Sept. 27, 2020, Miles was arrested after he allegedly pulled a gun on his mother, brother and other relatives. The D.A.'s office charged Miles with five counts, including possession of an instrument of crime, terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of a firearm.

What happened when the case went to court?

On Feb. 11, 2021, in front of Judge Karen Simmons, the D.A.'s office voluntarily withdrew all five charges.

A seasoned prosecutor who reviewed Miles's criminal history said it was clear that Miles was a danger to the community, especially to his family members.

But what so often happens in the D.A.'s office under Larry Krasner, the seasoned prosecutor said, is that Krasner's inexperienced prosecutors don't have a clue about how to work with police and members of the community to put dangerous offenders behind bars. 

They don't know how to convince potential witnesses that it's the right thing to do to come to court and testify, to protect the public from dangerous people like Tyree Miles.

Potential witnesses don't have any reason to trust "the lazy former public defenders" that Krasner hires as prosecutors, the seasoned prosecutor said, and risk coming to court and testify against dangerous defendants.

As a result, the D.A.'s office ends up dropping charges and dangerous defendants go free. 

One last pass from the D.A.

After those three arrests, Miles wasn't through with his criminal activities. 

On April 22, 2021, according to police, Miles got into an argument with a store clerk and he allegedly pulled a knife. When the cops showed up, Miles allegedly took off, with the cops in pursuit, while still holding the knife. 

The cops had to repeatedly order Miles to drop the knife before he finally complied.

When they arrested Miles, the cops discovered that Miles was carrying marijuana, so he was charged with possession. But regarding that April 22nd arrest, court records do not list any other charges filed against Miles by the D.A.'s office. 

According to the seasoned prosecutor, the D.A.'s office could have charged Miles with simple assault, terroristic threats, and possession of an instrument of crime, in addition to possession of marijuana. 

But instead, Miles got yet another break from the D.A.'s office.

Previously in his criminal career, Miles was arrested three times in 2014, for assault and domestic abuse, possession of narcotics, and contempt of court for failing to appear. 

Involuntary manslaughter

On Thursday, July 1, at approximately 9:30 p.m., police responded to a call for help in the 5500 block of Whitby Avenue in the Kingsessing section of the city. When the cops arrived they found a 10-year-old girl inside a second floor bedroom where her uncle was staying, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the head. She was taken to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she was pronounced dead.

Because Miles was still on probation, it was against the law for him to possess the gun that he carelessly left unguarded in a dresser drawer in his room, the same gun his niece was playing with when she shot herself. 

On July 5th, the D.A.'s office charged Miles with involuntary manslaughter, prohibited possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a child, possession of an instrument of crime, and reckless endangerment.

Miles is being held on $500,000 monetary bail, meaning he would have to post a 10% deposit, or $50,000, to get out of jail. 

Krasner's speech

After Miles was arrested, Larry Krasner got out his soapbox.

“When children are shot because an adult did not responsibly store or lock away a firearm, that adult needs to be accountable,” D.A. Krasner stated in a press release quoted by NBC10. “I am saddened that once again, a child’s life has been lost and their siblings forever traumatized because of access to a deadly weapon that should have been safely stored away.”

“Writing these tragedies off as mere ‘accidents’ ignores the responsibility of individuals, and all of society for the safety and protection of our children,” Krasner said. “Greedy gun manufacturers, the NRA’s cultish following, and the craven politicians they fund and support need to be accountable as well. We need to keep pushing state and federal lawmakers for reasonable regulation of guns.”

Larry Krasner's record of failure

But Krasner doesn't enforce existing gun laws. When people get arrested for carrying guns in Philadelphia, Krasner's office routinely gives out sentences well below state sentencing guidelines for gun crimes.

According to a tweet from Captain Matthew Gillespie, commanding office of the 18th Police District,  out of a total of 303 illegal firearm arrests in his district during 2019 and 2020, under Larry Krasner's D.A.'s office, only two of those defendants received state sentences, which typically run more than two years in jail.

Instead, the rest of those defendants who were found guilty or pleaded guilty received more lenient county sentences, which typically run between 11 1/2 months and 23 months. 

Besides always handing out lenient sentences, Krasner's office has a documented record of ineptitude when it comes to prosecuting gun crimes. 

According to the D.A.'s own crime stats posted online, out of 601 gun possession cases as of July 4th, 2021, 381 of those cases, or 63%, have been either dismissed or withdrawn. Out of the rest 175 defendants, or 29%, pleaded guilty, and 14 other defendants, an additional 2.3%, were found guilty at trial. 

Krasner's lax prosecution of gun crimes has been previously documented by Big Trial, which examined gun arrests in Philadelphia for just one month, July of 2019.

Court records show that of 231 defendants charged in July of 2019 with a gun crime, 73, or 32%, got a free ticket out of jail after the charges against them were either dropped, dismissed or lost by the D.A.'s office. 

Of the remaining defendants, only 45, or 19% out of the original 231 wound up pleading guilty, but the guilty pleas didn't amount to much jail time, because every convicted criminal got a deal from Krasner's office.

How good of a deal? Out of the 45 defendants who pleaded guilty, 40 got lenient county jail terms well below state sentencing guidelines. Those county sentences included immediate parole, early parole, house arrest, and probation.

The grand result of Krasner's policies -- more armed and dangerous criminals out on the streets. As of Nov. 1, 2020, just 16 months after they were originally arrested for gun crimes, a total of 176 out of the original 231 defendants, or 76%, were already out of jail, and free to commit more crimes.

And how many of these criminal defendants took advantage of that opportunity? Out of those original 231 defendants from the class of July 2019, court records showed, 51 or 22%, of the "graduates" of Krasner's lax prosecution of gun crimes were arrested again and charged with crimes that included gunpoint robberies, armed carjackings, rape, attempted murder, as well as a half-dozen murders.

Krasner's faithful apologists -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

The only thing worse than Krasner's ongoing failure to protect the public from armed and dangerous criminals in Philadelphia is the local news media's ongoing failure to hold Krasner accountable for his failures.

Take, for example, The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

The newspaper's publisher has already announced that as part of their mission to become an "antiracist news organization," the Inquirer will deemphasize crime news and make it harder to find online. Why? Because the Inquirer claims it's concerned about minority communities that "have often been stigmatized by [news] coverage that over-emphasizes crime."

Publisher Lisa Hughes picked a great year to deemphasize crime news. As of July 7th, Philadelphia already has 287 murders this year, a 34% increase over last year's near-record murder rate of 499. At this rate, the city will set an all-time record this year of 668 murders.

True to its stated goals, the Inquirer published an 18-paragraph news story by reporter Chris Palmer on the arrest of Tyree Miles for his niece's death. The story can't be found on the front page of the Inquirer's website. You have to click on "news" to find it at the bottom of a lengthy news page. 

Worse yet, in the story, loyal Krasner apologist Palmer doesn't print one word about any of the dozen charges that Krasner's office dropped on three different occasions in court against Miles. Even though it's all spelled out in court records.

In the Inquirer story, Krasner was also allowed to give his speech about holding people accountable for gun crimes, without anyone pointing out the D.A.'s own culpability, and documented record of failure in office.

So a newspaper that allegedly aspires to be an antiracist news organization is actively deemphasizing crime news at a time when the murder rate is at an all-time record high, and the victims are overwhelmingly people of color. 

At the same time, the Inquirer is actively covering up the failures of Larry Krasner, the great white savior, whose progressive policies are fueling an epidemic of gun violence that's killing those aforementioned people of color in record numbers.

It's a story that visitors to this blog know is all spelled out in crime stats and court records. But to willfully not report it, as the Inquirer is doing, for the political benefit of the great white savior, at the expense of the people of color who are dying, seems pretty damn racist to me.