Man who shot Mississippi deputy had criminal record dating back 3 decades to Mobile County

LUCEDALE, Miss. (WALA) -The man accused of gunning down a sheriff’s deputy had a criminal record both in Mississippi and Alabama, records show.

Law enforcement authorities on Friday identified 43-year-old Rickey Powell as the man who shot Deputy Jeremy Malone during a traffic stop on Thursday. Law enforcement officers later shot and killed Powell in Perry County after a chase through three counties.

Powell reportedly had a criminal record in Mississippi dating to at least until 2005. Court records show he spent time at Mississippi’s Parchman State Penitentiary for auto burglary and forgery. His criminal history, in fact, goes back even further – more than three decades to when he lived in Mobile County.

Law enforcement authorities arrested Powell in 1998 when he was just 18 years old and charged with burglary. Mobile County Circuit Court records show he pleaded guilty in 1999 to second-degree burglary, and a judge handed down a five-year sentence with all but seven months suspended, followed by probation.

Court records show a woman in Irvington reported that her 18-year-old daughter came home to a trailer home on Four Mile Road and found three men inside who had kicked in the door. One of them was Powell, who put a sheet over his head in an attempt to hide his identity and then ran out with the other two.

The judge revoked his probation the following January after determining that he failed to check in with his probation officer and didn’t make payments of court-ordered fees.

The judge sent him back to prison for five years, prompting him to send a hand-written letter complaining that he didn’t get credit for the time he previously had served.

“I had 7 months time in the Metro Jail when I signed up for probation I Ricky Powell was toll I Ricky Powell would have 7 months good time if I got violated of probation, but on my renovation papers it didn’t state that I had any 7 months credit on my 5 years probation,” he wrote. “So I request if I may receive my 7 months credit on my 5 years sentence.”

Powell had another brush with the law when Mobile County sheriff’s deputies arrested him in Grand Bay in 2007 on a charge of possession of marijuana. Prosecutors at the time indicated that intended to seek enhanced penalties under the habitual offender law based on his previous burglary conviction. But Powell failed to show for his court hearings. The judge issued a warrant, but he was never arrested, and the case was moved to the administrative docket in 2009.

George County Investigator Doug Adams broke down on Friday talking about the fallen deputy.

“We’ve had calls and officers from all over south Mississippi,” he said. “And that’s what happens. you go help your brother. … We just ask that y’all pray for our officers, the family and George County.”

Updated at 12:56 a.m. to correct an error in Deputy Jeremy Malone’s name.

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