Admitted killer is free from prison while state's top lawyer fights to get him back behind bars

DETROIT (WXYZ) - An admitted killer and violent felon has been a free man since Monday after a federal judge in Detroit granted him freedom to fight a conviction and life prison sentence.  

Dwayne Ballinger Jr., who is 31-years old, admitted to killing two men he identified as rival drug dealers in a late night shooting July 4, 2006, court records show.

Witnesses testified that Ballinger argued with the victims before he went to a car, got an AK-47, and fired the fatal shots, according to court records.

But U. S. District Court Judge Arthur Tarnow granted Ballinger to walk free on Monday.

Tarnow ruled in favor of Ballinger’s claim that he had ineffective legal counsel at trial. Ballinger argued to the court that his defense attorney failed to call an alibi witness that would have placed him miles away from the Kentfield Street location where the victims’ bodies were found. 

A friend of the victims, Mario Harris and Darius Jones, identified Ballinger as the killer at trial.

Today, State Attorney General Bill Schuette filed an emergency petition to revoke Ballinger’s bond, and bring him back into custody. Schuette said that Ballinger is an immediate danger to the community and to witnesses in the case.

However, the judge ruled that there was insufficent evidence to revoke the bond and Sallinger was allowed to go free.