Bond for alleged killer is reduced

The young man accused of killing bicyclist Martin Langmaid earlier this month, has been granted a reduction in his bond, but still remains in custody.
The attorney for Chaz Michael Gomez, 22, filed a motion to reduce bond shortly after Grady County Magistrate Larry Bearden originally set it at $131,000 July 2. Bearden says after holding a hearing on the motion July 17, he ruled it could be reduced by a total of $55,000; lowering the bond for the homicide by vehicle charge from $75,000 to $50,000, and leaving the scene of an accident bond from $50,000 to $20,000. The original $5,000 bond for the DUI charge and $1,000 bond for the failure to maintain lane charge were left unchanged.
“A person’s entitled to a reasonable bond,” Bearden stated this week, “I originally made it higher because of what the crime was, and I didn’t have a lot of information in front of me.”
Bearden says at the bond reduction hearing he determined, based on information presented by Gomez’s attorney, Gil Murrah, that Gomez is not a risk to flee since Gomez has a child here and other family.
Gomez is charged with driving drunk and hitting 53-year-old Langmaid, who was riding his bicycle on Lower Hawthorne Trail, then crashing his pickup truck 1.6 miles later at the intersection of Lower Hawthorne and Highway 111 South.
Mr. Langmaid was an avid cyclist who had just recently completed Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG) when he was killed tragically.