Boyd is accused of shooting her in Morton’s car wash parking lot “in broad daylight” she claims, which is less than one mile from the police station. Boyd was a safe choice for her to meet Boyd. McClendon claims that she has been fighting for her survival since the shooting. Boyd is alleged to have tried to run McClendon down with a car. According to police records, Boyd raped McClendon in a grocery store parking garage months later. Boyd was released on bond after he had committed all three violent crimes. He is allowed to walk free despite the fact that the Mississippi Constitution allows judges to cancel a person’s bail if they are convicted of a felony and have been held on bond for another felony. This is just one of many such stories in Mississippi. There is no central database of domestic violence crimes and the enforcement of fragmented domestic violence laws is subject to the discretion of judges, police, and district attorneys. The ongoing Mississippi Today series has shown a disjointed legal structure in the justice and municipal courts. This is where most domestic violence cases are heard. It also shows a criminal justice system that fails many victims. McClendon is one of many victims of domestic violence who are left in constant danger of being attacked again and again. McClendon stated that Boyd’s long and exhausting struggle to escape has been exhausting. McClendon has spent the past two years advocating for herself. She’s pushed police officers to make an arrest and questioned judges, court clerks and district attorneys. She also placed phone calls to Scott County courts to obtain information about her cases. She is often given the runaround which makes her feel deflated, discouraged, and frustrated. McClendon claimed that Boyd abused her for months, starting shortly after she met him in the late 2019 and continuing until his death. She claimed that Boyd strangled McClendon with an extension cord, men’s dress tie and a belt just 10 days prior to the March shooting. She said that there were threats prior to that and it would only escalate when he would attempt to distance himself. Your mind can tell you many things but it feels like you are trapped inside a box trying find your way out. Sometimes you feel it’s better just to say what he says, do what you want you to do, and go where he asks you to.” She never left her home except to go work. Each time she went to work she checked her surroundings to ensure he wasn’t waiting outside. “I reached the point that before I left for work, I looked outside to ensure he wasn’t in the bushes. She described her daily routine, saying that she would call him via FaceTime to check if he was at his house before I went outside to get into my car. When she was shot in her shoulder and arm March 23, 2020, she recalls the first thing she thought upon waking up in hospital. She knew she could be free from him. She said that he had tried to kill her, but it didn’t work and that he would be put into prison forever. However, that was not the case. Whitney Adams, a judge at Morton Municipal Court, initially set his bond to $300,000. The paperwork from Adams’ initial appearance shows that McClendon requested that Boyd not contact McClendon. There was also a section in Adams’ hand that stated: “Other Conditions: Danger to the Community.” Adams reduced the bond to $100,000 a month later. According to Morton Municipal Court documents, Boyd was released on bail and the bond was reduced to $75,000 again by Adams on June 4, less than three months following McClendon’s shooting. Mississippi Today asked Adams why Boyd’s bond had been reduced twice. Adams didn’t respond. According to police records, Boyd tried to drive McClendon’s car into a Forest bank with his car in September 2020, six months after the shooting. According to Scott County Detention Center documents, Norman Brown, a former Forest Municipal Court Judge set Boyd’s bond at $25,000 The 10% bond amount must be paid by those arrested. Boyd was able either to pay $2,500 or arrange payment in order to be released. Boyd was bonded again. Police reports state that Boyd then raped McClendon several months later in a grocery store parking garage. Another bond was issued to Boyd, which was $150,000 Evan Thompson, Forest Municipal Court’s prosecutor, stated to Mississippi Today that there are no records of either bond being issued. However, records from Scott County Sheriff’s Department prove that Brown has set all bonds. Brown, now retired, refused to answer multiple questions via email and declined an interview when approached in courtroom by the reporter. Boyd is still in prison following the latest arrest. Technically, Boyd could leave jail if he had the money today. This could potentially cause McClendon more harm. Shawn Harris, Boyd’s lawyer, did not respond to multiple requests from Mississippi Today for comment. “It is very clear that either the prosecution or the municipal court judge failed the victim repeatedly and put her in heightened risk of deadly lethal intimate partner violence,” Dorchen Leidholdt said. She is the director of Sanctuary for Families’ legal services for domestic violence survivors, the Center for Battered Women. “It’s quite shocking to me that he was able to be released multiple times after he had committed felony-level offenses. We know that domestic violence escalates, especially at this severity,” Leidholdt said. He also teaches domestic violence law at Columbia University. Boyd had stabbed Lenore Gray almost a decade before, leaving her with a punctured lung, neck and brain injuries that left her unable speak for several months. McClendon claimed that Boyd stabbed her because she refused to have sex with him. Gray, then aged 6 and 8, were in the next-door room when she was stabbed. She said that she spent a lot of money on medical bills and that she stayed at Jackson (at University of Mississippi Medical Center). Due to her efforts to stop Boyd from attacking her, she had to go to physical therapy in order to regain her fingers. Boyd was sentenced to four years imprisonment after pleading guilty in 2012. He was released on parole in 2013. According to MDOC, he was kept under the Mississippi Department of Corrections’ supervision for 14 months. Gray claimed she was informed of Gray’s release via social media, the same way that she learned about McClendon’s fate years later. She stated that she was devastated when she heard about McClendon’s attacks, including the shooting. Gray stated, “What are they going do? Wait until he murders somebody?” “There’s clearly something wrong there.” Steven Kilgore, District Attorney, currently holds all three Boyd cases involving McClendon. Brown granted Boyd multiple bonds, allowing him to escape jail and commit other crimes. He said that he did not know why. He said that he was not involved in the case at that time. His office doesn’t receive cases until they are handed over by law enforcement. He said that the state does not have a central system for tracking these crimes so judges in different courts may not know what happened in another. Kilgore said that it is possible for someone to know about the incident and say “Hey, that guy was already out on anaggravated assault,” but that does not always happen. However, that doesn’t explain Boyd being released on bond for the rape. Both it and his domestic violence aggravated attack charge were heard at Forest Municipal Court. Robbie Wilson, Grenada County’s prosecutor, is an advocate for domestic violence victims. She said that although there is no central database, it is possible to make a phone call and find out about cases in other courts. Because prosecutors are the ones communicating with victims, they can best follow up on any additional information that the victim has provided. But you must be motivated to do your job. Wilson stated that you must care. Wilson stated that if the prosecutor does not present the information (information about someone out on bond), then the judge may not even know it. Kilgore, the district Attorney, said again that he did not know why Boyd had a bond. He said, “If he does indeed have a bond on the third one, we will make sure that that’s pulled” and then file a motion for a revocation bond. At press time, there was no such motion. Former officers and advocates who served in Scott County and Forest say McClendon’s death is not surprising. Stephanie Stockton, an ex-advocate with the Care Lodge in Meridian visited Forest Municipal Justice Courts and Scott County Justice Courts as a part of her job. Her goal was to ensure domestic violence victims were aware of the services available to them to assist them through the confusing and overwhelming legal system. She said that officials from the courts did not cooperate with her and made it more difficult for victims. The victims or law enforcement can press charges when crimes are committed. Domestic violence victims are likely to either drop charges or press no charges. This can be done for many reasons, including love, financial security or fear of reprisal from their abuser. This law requires that a police officer can file charges if they witness or find evidence of a crime. Two former Forest Police Department officers claim that if officers were to file domestic violence charges against officers, the ex-Judge Norman Brown would dismiss them. He was the same judge who has repeatedly granted Boyd bail. James Creel was one of the former officers and now works in a different department. Creel had a family member who was a victim of domestic violence. Creel stated, “He (Judge Brown), will tell you right off the bat that it’s no happening if the victim did not sign the warrant and the affidavit, it’s still going to be thrown away.” “It makes it (as a cop) feel like your voice is being muted.” Brown again declined to comment on the story. Thompson, the city’s prosecutor, also did the same. Perhaps the most evident example of state neglect for domestic violence victims and crimes is at the level the attorney general’s. Neil Websdale (director of the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative) said that despite an offer by an organization to help the government institute a domestic violence mortality review, which would review the deaths due to domestic violence, no further discussions or planning took place. Michelle Williams, deputy chief of staff to the attorney general, stated that the person who was in contact with Websdale has moved on. Mississippi is one of five states that have not had a review. McClendon claimed Boyd kidnapped her six months after the shooting to get her to her family so that she could start dating again. According to the police report, she tried to get into a bank nearby but it was closed when he pulled up at Forest’s fast food restaurant. According to the police report, she ran to the ATM where Boyd tried to run her over with the car. According to the report, Boyd then tried to run her over with his car. He hit a Tahoe, and she fled the scene. Boyd was arrested and booked two months later. Forest Police Chief Will Jones stated that this was likely due to the inability of officers in his home jurisdiction to locate him. McClendon claims that she gave addresses to officers of Boyd’s home and work, as well as telling them his time. She reached out to Forest’s mayor before anything was done. Mississippi Today was informed by Nancy Chambers that she had spoken to McClendon regarding her case. She also made phone calls to the police and district attorney’s offices. McClendon was expecting Boyd to be released on bail for the Morton shooting charge. However, McClendon was not surprised that he wasn’t given bond. He was also arrested for allegedly trying to run her over. Norman Brown, then-Forest Municipal Court Judge, set a $25,000 bond. Boyd was released four days later after he had enough money. McClendon stated that they told him that he was entitled to a bond, unless he commits capital murder. “I went to a judge, I went the DA, and I went to a circuit court clerk and said, ‘He already out on bond for killing me, how are y’all going to get him another bail?'” She continued to be “cooped up,” she stated, out of fear. She left her home only for basic necessities. McClendon saw McClendon waiting for her in Forest’s grocery store parking lot three months later, in March 2021. “I thought that I had seen a ghost. She recalled that she thought she was about to die. According to the police report, Boyd stopped her from closing the car door as she was getting in her car. She told police that he raped and assaulted her in the parking lot. She reported the rape to Forest Police Department that night, but was told she would have to return the next day because no one was available. She called a Jackson domestic violence shelter, and they told her to come immediately to their clinic to get a rape tool. She said that she and an advocate from the shelter went back to the police department the following day. McClendon told her that she was discouraged by the suggestion of a sergeant from the police department when they met. McClendon said that it was difficult to prosecute cases and that they could get really nasty. McClendon said, “It’s going be really difficult for you,” he recalled. “Had she not been there, I would have given up. “I wanted to leave, but she encouraged me to stay,” Forest Police Chief Will Jones stated that an officer would not discourage anyone filing charges. Jones stated that Jones said it was likely the weekend and that the investigator wasn’t in the building. “There was no officer who was going to discourage her filing charges.” Jones spoke for Mississippi Today.