Huntsville authorities nab local fugitive

Published 12:00 am Friday, October 3, 2003

One of the four men charged in a robbery and kidnapping in Andalusia six months ago has been apprehended in Huntsville. Derrick Devon Carmichael, 23, of Evergreen, was caught Wednesday when he was pulled over by an officer for the city's traffic task force because he was not wearing a seat belt.

When Officer Jeff Rice checked Carmichael for outstanding warrants, he found the Evergreen man was wanted in Covington County on charges of kidnapping and felony aiding and abetting a person committing a crime.

Carmichael, along with

Chris Rogers, 20, and Tony Golden, both of Owassa, and one other man, were allegedly involved in an incident in March in which they forced themselves into a residence on Railroad Avenue at gun point.

According to police reports and interviews at the time of the incident, two of the four men involved forced their way into the home, where there several people, including infants. Andalusia Police Chief Wilbur Williams said at the time that one of the suspects allegedly pointed a gun at the crying children and threatened to kill them. The male owner of the residence, Williams said, was struck in the head with a gun by one of the suspects, suffering lacerations.

One of the victims of the robbery who was in the house at the time begged the suspects not to hurt the children, and offered to give them money if they would take him to Georgiana to get it.

Once in Georgiana, the victim was able to convince the suspects that he needed to go to a different room in his house to avoid raising the suspicions of another person who was there at the time. The victim and an acquaintance then barricaded themselves behind a locked door and, now armed, called E-911.

The suspects fled, according to Williams, and two of them, Rogers and Golden, were apprehended. Carmichael surrendered the following Tuesday, two days after the robbery took place.

According to court records, Carmichael was charged in March with first degree kidnapping and felony aiding and abetting a person committing a crime. The Covington County Grand Jury indicted him on those counts in March , at which time, according to Chief Assistant District Attorney Greg Gambril the court increased his amount of his bond.

"At that point a new arrest warrant would have been issued on the indictment," said Gambril. "My best guess would be that he was arrested on the indictment."