A career criminal has been charged with killing an actress in Washington, DC — but the alleged murder could have been prevented if he had worn his court-ordered monitoring device, according to published reports.
Duane Adrian Johnson, who has a long history of robbery arrests in several states, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday night.
He allegedly beat and strangled Tricia McCauley, 46, and drove around with her corpse inside her car.
Two weeks ago, the 29-year-old suspect was busted for shoplifting. During his Dec. 17 arraignment, Associate Judge Elizabeth Wingo ordered Johnson held until his preliminary hearing.
But three days later, Johnson appeared before a different Judge, Sherry Trafford, and was released because prosecutors were not ready to proceed.
Trafford order him to get fitted with a GPS monitoring device the next morning.
But Johnson blew off the appointment, according to DC TV station WUSA9.
Less than a week later, Johnson allegedly killed McCauley, who appeared in the 2006 film “Step Up” starring Channing Tatum.