MESA, Ariz. -- Authorities said an error by a Maricopa County court clerk led to the inadvertent release of a slaying suspect awaiting a death-penalty trial.

A county Superior Court judge's order to keep 23-year-old Albert Sermeno locked up after he completed a sentence on an auto theft charge was not accompanied by a minute entry.

That document would have notified all parties of the judge's order.

The state Department of Corrections released Sermeno on June 19 when he had completed his sentence for the auto theft.

A manhunt for Sermeno didn't begin until Tuesday when his attorney alerted authorities and the court that his client had been inadvertently released from prison.

Sermeno is accused in the fatal beating of 47-year-old Blake Stewart in June 2006 and had been locked up in Maricopa County jail in Phoenix.

"Words can't describe how frustrating it is to have somebody that dangerous on the loose," said the victim's friend Janeen Ryan.

Ryan said she can't even believe that one of the five suspects awaiting trial in the killing of her friend walked out of a state prison.

"This man murdered and helped pummel Blake to death," said Ryan.

Stewart was Ryan's next door neighbor and a long-time county employee, who police said had agreed to meet Sonia Mari-Chalar three years ago at a Circle K store for a rendezvous.

Police said the pair drove to a home, where three waiting men jumped him and severely beat him.

Investigators said the culprits loaded Stewart back in his county vehicle and dumped him in the desert near Interstate 17 and New River, where they butchered him with lawn shears.

Corrections officials said Sermeno had completed his three-and-a-half year sentence and there were no red flags on his paperwork indicating that he was not to be released.

CBS 5 did some digging and learned that on two occasions a judge had issued orders for Sermeno to stay in prison until the end of Stewart's slaying trial.

However, one of those orders was not completed by a clerk at the state Superior Court, which on Thursday admitted in a release that, "A minute entry...normally distributed... was not issued. Protocol was not completed."

"That's a big mistake and he's been gone so long, if he has a half a brain they'll never find him," said Ryan.

A judge reissued an arrest warrant for Sermeno on Tuesday, but police said they have no leads to his whereabouts.