LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)-- A Lafayette mother is heartbroken and frustrated after one of the suspects in her son's murder was released from jail, and she had no idea. She believes the justice system is failing her.

The mother of 26-year-old Telvis Benjamin, who was shot to death in 2020, said she waited two years before Lafayette police made two arrests in her son's murder.

Shortly after their arrests in 2022, a grand jury indicted Nathan Carter for second degree murder and Jacoldy Fox for principal to second degree murder. For the last year, they've both been held in jail. That is, until a week ago when Fox was released.

"I don't know if he'd be coming back to retaliate on us or anything. It hurt me to the core because my son is not here. It made me feel like that was a Christmas gift to me, a slap in the face," Amy Senegal, the mother of Telvis Benjamin, said.

Senegal said on Friday, Dec. 15, she got an alert that one of the men charged in her son's murder was no longer being held in the Lafayette Parish jail.

News 10 confirmed Jacoldy Fox was in custody in Lafayette Parish to answer to the charges in Benjamin's murder. News 10 also confirmed there was a detainer on Fox in St. Landry Parish. On Dec. 15, he was transferred to the St. Landry Parish jail on that detainer but bonded out the same day he arrived.

"You're home with your family. My son is not waking up to come be with me for Christmas. He's not there for his daughter. You're smiling with your family. We're hurt. I'm hurt. This is not right," Senegal said. "The system needs to do something better than that. That's totally wrong. It's wrong."

Senegal believes victims' families should be informed of if and when a suspect in a loved ones' murder will be released.

"So we can be more prepared than that because what if he would have seen me and did anything to me or anyone in my family, my loved ones. We need to do a whole lot better in this community. The court system needs to step up their system and do something better," she added.

Her biggest fear is that a suspect could commit a crime while outside of jail.

"How do you think that family is going to feel because the first thing they're going to say is, 'They should have left him in there.' Anybody that commits a serious crime like that, I'm sorry. They shouldn't even have bond at all. They need to stay their tails in there, and that's the bottom line. We can save people's lives if you keep people like that still incarcerated," Senegal told News 10.

News 10 reached out to officials in the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office to try to find answers for Senegal. We're still waiting on a response.

Meanwhile, the other man indicted in Telvis Benjamin's murder, Nathan Carter, is still being held in the Lafayette Parish jail for second degree murder and over a dozen other charges.

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