HAMPTON, Va. — Cory Bigsby left the Hampton Roads Regional Jail Wednesday night on an $80,000 bond.
This comes after the Hampton man was charged with murdering his 4-year-old son, Codi Bigsby.
As a condition of his bond, Bigsby will have to be on an electronic monitoring system and will live with his oldest daughter in Norfolk. He won't be able to leave the home or contact his other children.
But many in the community are asking why he was granted bond on this murder charge but was repeatedly denied bond on the 30 counts of child neglect and abuse charges.
Mario Lorello, a criminal defense attorney, said the outcome is a little unexpected.
"It is surprising on some levels because when you look at what has occurred procedurally, he was charged with lesser offenses of the child abuse and then he's been direct indicted on a much more serious offense, which carries a much higher potential penalty and he received a bond on that charge, despite never having received a bond previously on the less serious charges."
Bigsby's attorney, Amina Matheny-Willard, argued in court Wednesday that with strict monitoring, he would not pose a threat to the public.
Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell argued against the bond being granted. He said because a judge previously denied Bigsby bond several times just on the child neglect charges, this hearing should be no different.
He said by giving Bigsby bond, it gives him an opportunity to obstruct evidence.
"What the court is looking at is whether or not he’s a flight risk and whether or not he’s a danger to the community," Lorello said. "So, on those prior bond hearings, obviously the court found at least one of those two conditions were met."
He said this time, it could’ve come down to the evidence.
"One of the factors the court has to consider is the weight of the Commonwealth’s evidence and if there’s not a lot of information that is being provided by the prosecutors to the court and to the judge, then they don’t have a lot of information that they can weigh that factor with," said Lorello.
Court documents didn't specify the evidence used to back the murder charge.
As for what’s next, Lorello said because there are two sets of charges proceeding in unison in two separate courts, decisions will need to be made.
"You have one set of charges which are currently set in the Juvenile Domestic Relations Court -- which is the lower court -- and then you have another set of charges, the murder charge, which was direct indicted," he said. "At some point, a decision has to be made as to whether or not they're combined, whether or not they're going to proceed on all of the charges, or if they're just going to proceed on the murder charge."