A convicted killer who was mistakenly released from jail is caught 2
weeks later
[April 12, 2025]
By JEFF MARTIN
ATLANTA (AP) — The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that a convicted
killer who was mistakenly released from a Georgia jail has been caught
two weeks later in Florida — ending days of anxiety for the victim's
family outside Orlando who feared he might harm them over their role in
the trial.
Kathan Guzman, 22, was supposed to spend the rest of his life in prison
after admitting he strangled his girlfriend, 19-year-old Delila Grayson,
who was found dead in a bathtub in August 2022, Clayton County Sheriff
Levon Allen told WSB-TV.
However, jail workers in the county south of Atlanta mistakenly released
Guzman on March 27 because they didn’t read paperwork carefully, failing
to see that he’d been convicted of murder and assault by strangulation,
the sheriff told the broadcaster. In a statement Friday, he said
disciplinary actions are pending and firings are on the table.
Guzman told someone after being freed that “God is good” and he believed
his release was the result of a higher power, the sheriff told WSB.
The victim's mother, Christina Grayson, wasn’t told her daughter’s
murderer was on the loose until Tuesday, after the district attorney
learned of it, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“I feel like I’m a sitting duck,” Grayson told WFTV-TV in Orlando.
Her family was sleeping in shifts so that someone was awake at all
times, she told the broadcaster, and deputies in Osceola County
patrolled her neighborhood as the search continued.
Guzman was arrested “without incident” Friday at a residence in
Ocoee, near Orlando, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Booking records
showed he was being held in the Orange County Jail.
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This booking image provided by the Orange County, Fla., Sheriff's
Office shows Kathan Guzman. (Orange County Sheriff's Office via AP)
“Today we tracked him down and got him in custody,” said Michael
Sonethavilay, deputy commander of the agency's Florida/Caribbean
Regional Fugitive Task Force.
The agency's Southeast Regional Task Force, based in Atlanta, “did
some digging and found some information that he may be in Florida,”
Sonethavilay said. They got in touch with the Florida task force,
which worked with the Orange County Sheriff's Office and picked him
up.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Office of Victim Services had discovered it
couldn't locate Guzman in the corrections system and notified the
prosecutor's office, Clayton County District Attorney Tasha Mosley
said in a statement. Mosley said her employees then checked the
jail's computer system, which appeared to show Guzman had been let
go, so they immediately notified the sheriff.
“All appropriate paperwork was sent to the appropriate people. I
have no idea why they released this man,” Mosley told the Atlanta
newspaper. “We are just as disappointed and pissed off as everybody
else.”
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