Victims' relatives tell House panel of delayed prosecutions and repeat-offender failures

Family members of homicide victims, and a wounded police officer, told a House Judiciary subcommittee in Charlotte that delays in prosecution and repeated unsecured releases of defendants contributed to further tragedies.

Testimony from two families — the grandmother of Mary Collins and the father of Logan Federico — and an officer injured in a 2024 task-force shooting laid out detailed grievances about specific cases, including bond decisions and the pace of prosecutions.

Why this matters: relatives said criminal-justice system failures compounded their original losses. They urged stricter detention for repeat violent offenders, better communication from prosecutors and swifter trials so evidence and witnesses are preserved.

Mia Alderman, who identified herself as the grandmother of Mary Collins, described the 2020 killing of her 20-year-old granddaughter and what she called years of delay in bringing accused suspects to trial. "Five years is not justice. Five years is torment," Alderman told the committee. She said two suspects in the case were released on bond and that one, identified in her testimony as America Rae Deal, had repeatedly violated curfew and monitoring conditions while remaining free.

Logan Federico, father of 22-year-old Logan Federico who was murdered while visiting friends, described the offender's extensive criminal history: "He was arrested 39 goddamn times, 25 felonies," Federico said. Federico outlined multiple prior arrests and short sentences that, in his view, should have kept the defendant incarcerated. "My daughter deserved to be heard," he said; "I will fight until my last breath for my daughter."

Officer Campbell, who testified in a personal capacity about a 2024 incident in which multiple marshals and officers were shot during service of an arrest warrant, described long-term injuries and the challenges of policing when repeat violent offenders are repeatedly released. "We spend a lot of our time chasing our tail and rearresting the same people that we arrested the week prior," he said. He urged courts to deny bond for violent offenders: "If you commit a crime against another person violently, that you should not have a bond."

Witnesses and members repeatedly described court delays: Alderman said the county's murder docket lagged years behind and that some cases from 2019 were still being processed. Members pressed local practices — magistrate bond decisions and prosecutorial staffing — as proximate causes of public-safety failures.

Several members told the panel they planned to pursue legislative and oversight steps. Representative Moore said the problem was a policy question about magistrates and judges rather than a pure funding issue, while other members said the state legislature had authorized additional prosecutors and awaited the governor's signature on some measures.

The hearing focused on individual suffering and concrete case details while also feeding a larger partisan policy debate about pretrial release, funding for prosecutors and the role of magistrates. No formal enforcement actions were taken at the hearing.