Bond for Fresno, California’s Ernest Carter set at $500K

Ernest “Le’Taxione” A. Carter, 56, of Fresno, California, United States is in jail again. A woman accused him of hitting her many times, trying to strangle her and biting her on the left side of her face on the evening of December 14, 2020.

On December 17, 2020, Carter was arrested and booked into the Spokane County Jail in Spokane, Spokane County, Washington, USA. He was charged with domestic violence assault.

Bond for Carter was set at $500,000. On December 29, 2020, he will be arraigned.

Who is Ernest Carter?

Carter is a published author and an activist advocating for gang violence prevention. He is one of the founding members of a gang in Fresno.

In 1983, Carter was convicted of assault with a firearm on a police officer in California. In 1988, he was convicted of felony possession and distribution of a controlled substance in Oregon, USA and in 1990, he was convicted of attempted murder in Oregon.

In 1998, the Pierce County Superior Court in Pierce County, Washington convicted Carter of two counts of first-degree robbery and sentenced him as a persistent offender to life in prison. It was his third serious offense so he was eligible for life without parole under the persistent offender law.

In 2007, Carter founded the Nine Steps to Empower Process (N’STEP), an innovative, non-traditional and effective approach to gang violence prevention. In 2015, the Clemency and Pardons Board unanimously recommended that 23rd Washington governor Jay Inslee commute Carter’s sentence.

In December 2016, Carter was sent to a work release program. In 2017, he refused a drug test and failed an alcohol breath test but in 2018, he was released.

After leaving prison, Carter enrolled at Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane. He became the vice president of the school’s Black Student Union and member of the executive board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branch in Spokane.