Ky’ruan Jameir Yarbrough was in court Tuesday for the first time since being charged in the shooting death of Alexis Garth, 26, of Athens, in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2023.

Yarbrough, who is charged with capital murder, came before District Judge R. Gray West for a pretrial detention hearing, or Aniah’s Law hearing. Aniah’s Law was passed in November and allows judges to deny bond to those who are charged with committing violent crimes. The law went into effect on Nov. 28, 2022.

A court order filed Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, ordered that Yarbrough be “held without bond pending further order of the Court.” A preliminary hearing will be set at a later date.

The order also outlines Yarbrough’s criminal past beginning with a conviction on Dec. 5, 2019, as a Youthful Offender for which he received a 36 month suspended sentence and 24 months of probation.

“During that probationary period, it was alleged that the defendant violated the terms of his probation by committing new criminal offenses on two separate occasions,” the order stated.

Circuit Judge Chadwick Wise then revoked Yarbrough’s probation and ordered him to serve the remainder of the 36-month sentence in a state penitentiary that would end in May 2023. However, Yarbrough was granted a “mandatory release” by the Alabama Department of Corrections on Dec. 2, 2022, and was allowed to return to Athens/Limestone County to be supervised by the Limestone County Office of Pardons and Paroles.

The News Courier reported April 1, 2019, on the arrest of Yarbrough, then 16, after shooting at three other juveniles following a fight earlier that day. An investigation into the shooting incident determined that Yarbrough had been bullying several juveniles prior to the shooting. One of the juveniles stood up to Yarbrough which escalated into a physical altercation.

Yarbrough then left, retrieved a hand gun, returned to where the juveniles were still gathered at a home on Brownsferry Road, exited his vehicle, and began firing, according to the Courier’s 2019 report. The juvenile with which he had the previous altercation was struck twice. A second juvenile was also struck, and a third juvenile’s clothing was grazed. None of the wounds were life threatening.

Yarbrough was indicted in June 2019 of first-degree assault and second-degree assault.

The News Courier reached out Wednesday morning to the Alabama Department of Corrections in regards to the “mandatory release” of Yarbrough in December 2022. Among the questions asked were who was responsible for the decision to release Yarbrough and what parameters are in place for those determinations.

At press time, The Alabama Department of Corrections had not responded.