Nov. 14 – A Decatur man accused of holding two adults and two children captive on Autumnwood Drive – after a victim said she rejected his advances – posed a credible threat to his ex, according to a Madison County judge wife and children. convicted of assaulting his stepfather.
“He showed me what he is capable of and attacked my father in his own front yard and attempted to strangle him to death,” John Derek Mitchell’s ex-wife wrote in a December 2020 petition for an order of protection from abuse against him.
Mitchell, 45, allegedly held two adults and two children at gunpoint for nearly two days this weekend at his home in the 400 block of Autumnwood Drive Southwest, the same home he was occupying when a Madison County judge issued a final hearing order. after Mitchell failed to appear in court in January 2021.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Decatur police responded to the Solar gas station on Austinville Road, about a quarter-mile from Mitchell’s residence, to find Mitchell’s female roommate.
She told a detective that Mitchell became angry with her after she refused his advances early Saturday morning, according to the detective’s affidavit sworn in Morgan County District Court on Monday.
The woman then fell asleep in her bedroom and “woke up when Mitchell held a gun in her face and yelled at her to get up,” the affidavit said. She and “three other persons” were sent to the living room and held captive.
Mitchell brandished a gun during the ordeal and threatened to kill everyone in the home, the affidavit said. At one point, he allegedly pressed the gun to the back of a victim’s head as he escorted the victim to the bathroom.
The four victims were able to escape Sunday while Mitchell was distracted, according to the affidavit.
Decatur police arrested Mitchell without incident at his residence Monday and charged him with four counts of kidnapping in the second degree, a class B misdemeanor.
Aside from a few visits from news crews, the neighborhood on Austinville Road was quiet Wednesday as Mitchell remained in the Morgan County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bond. A front window of Mitchell’s home was decorated with cartoonish ghosts apparently left over from Halloween. Some neighbors said they had no idea a kidnapping had taken place.
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History
Mitchell punched his stepfather in the face several times in March 2020 after a dispute over a job, a Montgomery County filing shows. Mitchell was sentenced to two years of supervised probation in March 2021. He was also prohibited from possessing a firearm and ordered to complete a community corrections program called EVEN.
Montgomery County’s director of community corrections did not respond to questions about the program; However, a letter from EVEN’s court liaison filed in April 2021 states that Wellstone in Huntsville offers a similar program. The letter also states that Mitchell was unreachable by telephone.
A Wellstone representative said Wednesday that they are offering a program that includes domestic violence and anger management classes. Court records do not indicate whether Mitchell ever completed such a program.
Mitchell’s ex-wife alleged in her December 2020 petition for the protective order that he threatened to break her neck and kill her.
“The defendant grabbed me by the neck and forced me to the floor and bed, punched me in the back, destroyed my phone and threatened to kill me multiple times,” she wrote. “He is bipolar 1 with dual diagnosis.”
Court records show Mitchell and his ex-wife, who share two children together, divorced in 2018.
“A judgment of domestic violence committed by the defendant against the plaintiff (ex-wife) has been entered by the court,” reads the final order from Madison County District Judge Patrick Tuten.
The protective order banned Mitchell from going within 500 feet of his children’s school and his ex-wife’s home until January 2023.
– david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.
