Montgomery resident Louis Stinson Jr. was recently found guilty on charges stemming from a 2018 incident in Millbrook.
On Wednesday, March 24, Stinson appeared in Elmore County Circuit Court to face charges of first-degree domestic violence, second-degree assault and first-degree robbery. He was found guilty on all three charges and is set to be sentenced on April 29.
On July 21, 2018 Millbrook police responded to the 4000 block of Grandview Road in regard to a person who was shot at that location. Responding officers discovered that a 51-year-old female and her 21-year-old son had been shot during a domestic dispute, leaving the female with life threatening injuries and her son sustaining gun shots to his extremities.
The suspect took the victim’s vehicle and he fled the scene. The suspect was identified as Stinson, then a 40-year-old Montgomery resident.
Based on information developed during the investigation, investigators with Millbrook’s Criminal Investigative Unit obtained warrants of arrest against the offender for domestic violence, assault and robbery.
The victim’s vehicle was recovered near the Alabama/Georgia state line, which led law enforcement to focus their efforts in that area.
On July 25, 2018, Stinson was taken into custody at the Millbrook Police Department where he surrendered to law enforcement without incident. Stinson told investigators he felt and succumbed to the pressure of being sought by multiple law enforcement agencies that were attempting to locate and apprehend him, as well as the exposure he received from news and social media outlets. He was placed in the Elmore County Jail with under a $95,000 bond.
“We are certainly pleased with the guilty verdict in this case,” said Millbrook Police Chief P.K. Johnson. “Our police officers and our Criminal Investigative Unit did an outstanding job in this case, as did our District Attorney’s Office prosecutors. That stated, this is yet another example of the failure of the criminal justice system to keep violent offenders incarcerated and off our streets. This individual had an extensive and violent criminal history prior to committing these crimes, which include prior arrests on felony assault, domestic violence offenses, charges of Violating a Family Protection Order, as well as multiple resisting arrest charges. The offender committed the crimes in this case, having served less than four years of a 10-year sentence on a previous felony assault case.”
Although, Johnson wants to see changes when it comes to the incarceration of habitual violent offenders, he said he is in no way blaming the District Attorney’s Office or Elmore County judges.
“We are blessed to have some of the best prosecutors and judges that you could ask for here in the 19th Judicial Circuit,” he said. “There are sentencing guidelines that the judges must adhere to, which are mandated by state law. During my 32-plus years in law enforcement, it has become increasingly difficult to keep habitual and even violent offenders incarcerated. Something has to change. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but like the old saying goes, ‘If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck… it’s probably a duck!’
“In my opinion, people, who over their lifetime demonstrate that they are violent toward others, commit multiple felony offenses, and refuse to modify their behavior, are a clear and present danger to innocent citizens and they have no business on our streets. Our law enforcement professionals, prosecutors and the judiciary know this. We know it because we see it daily. There needs to be dialog between law enforcement professionals, prosecutors, the judiciary, victims of violent crime and our state legislators, to come up with a practical solution to preventing violent and career criminals from being allowed to continue to victimize our citizens, when in reality they’ve demonstrated on multiple occasions that they either have no intent or lack the ability to modify their criminal behavior and become productive members of society.”
