Loudoun County officials trade blame over inmate's mistaken release

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office blamed one another after an accused killer was mistakenly released from jail earlier this month.

LEESBURG, Va. - The Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office originally blamed the sheriff’s office after an accused killer was mistakenly released from jail earlier this month.

While the suspect was arrested in Georgia a day later, there's still some confusion as to how this happened.

Stone Colburn, 25, was initially arrested in July 2021 after being accused of stabbing his brother's girlfriend – Natalie Crow – to death.

Stone Colburn PHOTO: Loudoun County Sheriff's Office

Loudoun County's Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj dropped the murder charge after a court ruled him incompetent to stand trial. The court rejected a second competency hearing request, which is why Biberaj said she dismissed the charge.

Instead, she charged Colburn with concealment of a dead body in an attempt to get another competency hearing. The second charge was supposed to keep Colburn behind bars, however, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office still released him.

The sheriff's office told FOX 5 they plan to investigate the matter to make sure something like this doesn't slip through the cracks again.

"We have differences of opinions on things," Sheriff Mike Chapman said. "I don’t want to get into all the political battles and all that kind of stuff. We actually are in the criminal justice system. We have to work together and that’s what we wanna do. We want to make sure that we get people who are committing crimes properly prosecuted and serve the sentences that they need to."

At Tuesday night’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Chair Phyllis Randall stated Biberaj and Sheriff Chapman seem to be in a political battle.

Loudoun County man wrongfully released from jail captured in Georgia

Biberaj fired back during an impromptu press conference Wednesday.

"I am not. I can’t do my job without him," she said. "Neither one of us could afford to have any sort of battle. This job is very challenging and if we cannot work together, who’s successful? Not he, not I, and most definitely our community’s not successful."

"My goal is to always make sure we have safety and justice in our community," Biberaj added.

The commonwealth's attorney changed her tune from pointing the finger at the sheriff’s office to offering a sit down discussion to find ways to ensure this mistake does not happen again.

The sheriff's office told FOX 5 they will accept the invitation.

This is a developing story. Check back with FOX 5 for updates.