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 — was a credible threat to his ex-wife and children, according to a Madison County judge, and previously convicted of attacking his stepfather.
“He has showed me what he is capable of and has attacked my father in his own front yard and tried to choke him to death,” wrote John Derek Mitchell’s ex-wife in a December 2020 petition for a protection from abuse order against him.
Mitchell, 45, allegedly held two adults and two children at gunpoint for nearly two days over the weekend at his residence in the 400 block of Autumnwood Drive Southwest, the same residence he occupied when a Madison County judge issued a final, post-hearing protection order after Mitchell failed to appear in court in January 2021.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Decatur police responded to Solar gas station on Austinville Road, about a quarter mile away from Mitchell’s residence, to find Mitchell’s female roommate.
She told a detective that Mitchell became upset with her after she refused his advances in the early morning on Saturday, 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 to Mitchell holding a handgun in her face yelling at her to get up,” according to the affidavit. She and “three other individuals” were ordered into the living room and held captive.
Mitchell brandished a handgun during the ordeal and threatened to kill everyone inside the residence, according to the affidavit. At one point, he allegedly pressed the handgun to the back of a victim’s head while escorting the victim to the bathroom.
The affidavit says the four victims were able to escape Sunday while Mitchell was distracted.
Decatur police arrested Mitchell at his residence on Monday without incident and charged him with four counts of second-degree kidnapping, a Class B felony.
Outside of a few visits by broadcast news teams, the neighborhood on Austinville Road was quiet Wednesday as Mitchell remained in the Morgan County Jail in lieu of a $200,000 bond. A front window of Mitchell’s home was decorated with cartoonish ghosts apparently left over from Halloween. A couple of neighbors said they had no idea a kidnapping allegedly occurred.
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History
Mitchell punched his stepfather in the face multiple times in March 2020 following a dispute about a job, according to a case file in Montgomery County. Mitchell was convicted in March 2021 and sentenced to two years of supervised probation. He was also prohibited from possessing a firearm and ordered to complete a community corrections program called EVEN.
The director of Montgomery County community corrections did not respond to inquiries about the program; however, a letter from EVEN’s court liaison filed in April 2021 states Wellstone in Huntsville offers a similar program. The letter also states Mitchell was unreachable by phone.
A representative from Wellstone on Wednesday said they offer a program of domestic violence and anger management classes. It’s unclear from court records if Mitchell ever completed such a program.
Mitchell’s ex-wife, in her December 2020 petition for the protection order, claimed he had threatened to break her neck and kill her.
“The defendant grabbed me by the back of neck and forced me onto the ground 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.
“There has been a finding by the court of domestic violence committed by the defendant against the plaintiff (ex-wife),” reads the final order issued by Madison County District Judge Patrick Tuten.
The protection order barred Mitchell from going within 500 feet of his children’s school and his ex-wife’s residence until January 2023.
— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.
