Georgia man accused of molesting girl went to parks, youth soccer while free on bond
A Warner Robins man arrested in early 2018, accused of molesting a 6-year-old Byron girl and allegedly firing a gunshot into the ceiling when the child’s father discovered him in bed with her, spent nearly three years in the Peach County jail awaiting trial.
But last year after the coronavirus pandemic set in, Marcus Dynell “Taz” Tasby Sr. was, upon posting a $70,000 bond, released from jail 11 days before Christmas. He was placed under strict house arrest until his case went to trial or was otherwise resolved.
His freedom, however, came with court-ordered requirements.
He had to wear an ankle-monitor tracking device at all times and he could leave his home off Moody Road only to visit his lawyer, to attend court or for medical reasons.
Some of the charges he faces — which include aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy and aggravated assault — stem from a Feb. 18, 2018, incident allegedly involving the Byron 6-year-old.
Peach Sheriff Terry Deese said at the time that the girl’s father had, after a Saturday-night party at the family’s house, tucked the child into bed only to return to find a man later identified as Tasby “in bed with her, performing a sex act on her.”
If convicted, Tasby faces life in prison.
On the move
Tasby, now 33, appears to have complied with the ground rules of his mid-December release from jail until one day in early March. It was then, according to Peach County prosecutors, that he began venturing out of the mobile home where he was staying with his wife and four children. His movements set off alerts at the monitoring service that was keeping tabs on him.
Beginning March 7 and running through May 12, Tasby was, on various occasions, at locations that included: a corner store near his residence, Jamaican Jerk restaurant in Perry, a Kroger supermarket, a Perry park, a car wash, an auto parts store, a Cook-Out restaurant in Warner Robins, a Ruby Tuesday eatery, the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park in Macon, a Walmart, a youth soccer complex on Snellgrove Drive in Warner Robins where his wife was said to coach a team, a Huddle House, the Tasty Crab House in Warner Robins, Walker’s Pond in Warner Robins and the parking lot of Green Acres Baptist Church in Warner Robins.
It was not clear what took the authorities two months to bring Tasby to court to address the violations. He remained free until he appeared at a bond-revocation hearing in Peach County Superior Court on Wednesday.
At the hearing, his attorneys noted there had been no allegations of anything “untoward” happening during Tasby’s bond-violating outings.
Prosecutor Neil A. Halvorson, however, said at the hearing that Tasby, by being around children at a soccer game, likely violated bond conditions that stipulated Tasby have no contact with minors other than his biological children.
Tasby’s lawyers, meanwhile, attributed at least some of their client’s infractions to him going out “for exercise,” saying he is a military veteran who suffers from PTSD and anxiety issues. Most of his forays, they said, were to the corner store for toiletries or for exercise.
Tasby testified that he did not intend to violate the court’s order, that he was “trying to provide support” for his family. He said his doctor recommended workouts that involved running and other fitness activity to “bring down my cholesterol levels” and to address “my emotional anxiety.”
On the stand, Tasby did not deny violating the bond conditions. When asked by Halvorson, the prosecutor, whether he had in fact been where the tracking device said he was, Tasby said, “I was.”
Halvorson asked Tasby if his doctor had suggested that he go to Ruby Tuesday, Huddle House or the Tasty Crab House.
“No,” answered Tasby, whose lawyers earlier asserted he had “a limited understanding” of the meaning of house arrest and had “a lapse of judgment.”
“My only goal,” Tasby said, “was to be there for my family.”
‘I didn’t say you could go to soccer games’
But now he is back in jail.
Judge Connie L. Williford had in December informed Tasby of the rules he had to follow upon release from the county lockup.
“I made it very clear to you,” she reminded him. “You are an intelligent man. You understood.”
Reading from transcript of the December hearing, the judge told Tasby how she had warned that if he failed to comply “you’ll be sitting there (in jail) until you go to trial.”
Tasby had at the time replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
Baffled by Tasby’s seeming casual disregard for her order and bristling at the audacity of claims that he somehow misunderstood it, Williford chided him: “Can you imagine how long it would take me if I sat here and listed all the places you couldn’t go? ... I didn’t say you could walk the dog. I didn’t say you could go to soccer games. ... The fact that you don’t understand the gift that you were given that day after being in the jail for almost three years ... and you decided to throw that gift away so that you could go out to eat, go to the soccer game or go to the store.”
Williford said that because Tasby’s case has taken so long to be resolved amid the pandemic that if, by the end of August the matter had not been adjudicated, he could petition the court to reconsider his bond.
As Tasby was handcuffed and led away to jail, he turned to a woman who had come to court with him and told her, “I love you.”
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 10:10 AM.