BATON ROUGE - A video posted to his Instagram page shows 21-year-old Rashawn Alexander leaving the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison early Wednesday morning.

The problem is, the district attorney says, he wasn't supposed to be released.

"Apparently, he paid the bond, and no holds were reflected at the prison for whatever reason, and he was able to bond out like anyone else would have," said Hillar Moore. 

The locally-known rapper has been in jail since March 2023 waiting to stand trial for the murder of Nicholas Williams. 

At the time of that arrest, Alexander was out on bond for other charges.

On Tuesday, during a routine motion hearing, Judge Tarvald Smith found no probable cause for one of those charges involving possession of a firearm.

For reasons still unclear, there was no longer documentation holding Alexander in jail, and the jail allowed him to post a $260,000 bond.

"Despite the judge finding no probable cause on one case, he had multiple other cases, including murder, and everyone understood the hold was still in place on all of the other charges."

The mistake was noticed immediately.

Once Judge Smith was notified of his release, he issued a new arrest warrant. Alexander turned himself in Thursday morning and is back in custody.

Moore says he's not sure where the communication breakdown happened. When they left the hearing Tuesday, no one was under the impression that Alexander would be allowed to bond out.

"I don't know where any miscommunication could have happened but that's obviously what happened."

Before police arrested Alexander for Williams' murder, the court ordered him to wear an ankle monitor.

He has been in and out of jail for various charges including misdemeanor domestic abuse and drug and gun possession. According to the monitoring company, Alexander wasn't taking his supervision seriously.

"We continued to get notice that his battery was low and he continued to violate and go out of the state while on an ankle monitor and we asked that his bond be revoked," said Moore, who at the time filed a motion to have his bond revoked. 

Three months later in March of 2023, police picked him up on charges of possession of a firearm, driving a stolen vehicle, violating a protective order, and ultimately tied him to the murder which police say is caught on camera.

Alexander's lawyer Ryan Thompson says his client has a constitutional right to a bond and it appears he is being denied that right.

"Is he not an American citizen? Is he not innocent until proven guilty?" asked Thompson.

Thompson compares Alexander's murder arrest to that of Jace Boyd. Boyd was found guilty of manslaughter for shooting and killing Danny Buckley in the parking lot of a Baton Rouge shopping center in 2020. It was also captured on video. Thompson represented Buckley's family during the trial.

"There are all these questions surrounding whether or not this shooting occurred on video," said Thompson, referring to the shooting Alexander is indicted for. "That's not the question right now.  But if it is the question, my question becomes, why is he not afforded the same perceived privileges as [Boyd] where a shooting was on video?"

Despite admitting to the shooting as self-defense minutes after it happened, Boyd was not arrested until days later. After being indicted, he was granted bond. 

"My issue is the differential treatment between Black and white defendants."