The Loudoun County commonwealth’s attorney released documents Wednesday that she says show her office isn’t to blame after a murder suspect was wrongfully released from jail.
Stone Colburn was allowed to walk out of custody after charges in his case were adjusted, and there has been a lot of finger-pointing about who was to blame.
Commonwealth's Attorney Buta Biberaj says her office contacted the jail the day before Colburn was released and communicated that he needed to be held.
“We called the jail on the fifth and said, 'We're gonna do this; we need to make sure that's he's picked up and held,'" she said.
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Colburn had been in custody since July 2021, accused of killing his brother's girlfriend.
For a series of legal reasons, the commonwealth’s attorney dropped the original murder charge in court earlier this month and added a new charge – concealing a dead body.
With the new charge was a new order from the court to hold Colburn in custody.
The jail saw the murder charge was dismissed and released Colburn, but the following day, Biberaj said the jail shouldn't have released him because of the new charge.
“What went wrong is that the sheriff's office didn't abide by the court's order, which said transfer him to the jail," she said.
"I think there was confusion in the way it was handled," Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman responded at the time.
In a detailed statement posted on the county's website, Biberaj called it "the result of an error by the LCSO."
At Tuesday night's Board of Supervisors meeting, fellow Democrat Kristen Umstattd said Biberaj was wrong to use a county platform to place blame on the sheriff when she believes it was Biberaj's fault.
"I truly wish I could trust the commonwealth's attorney's version of the facts, but that version appears to be incomplete, misleading or false," Umstattd said.
Biberaj said she was shocked to hear Umstattd's comments.
"I don't believe that she understood what occurred and took a position without having full information," she said.
Both Biberaj and Chapman say what matters most is Colburn is back in custody after being caught in Georgia, but there's lingering concern these types of mistakes tarnish the public's trust in the system.
