Alabama: Black Charged with Capital Murder for Crime Spree That Left Four Dead

Derrick Lee Hightower

It just never ends with these pavement apes.

They’re like (semi-)human tornadoes, destroying everything in their path.

Al:

A Georgia man accused in a deadly crime spree across Alabama over the weekend has now been formally charged with the murder of a Birmingham man.

Birmingham detectives on Monday obtained a capital murder warrant during a burglary against 32-year-old Derrick Lee Hightower. He is charged in the Saturday-morning shooting death of 36-year-old Antione Harris inside an east Birmingham home. A no-bond has been issued against Hightower.

Hightower and 21-year-old Kentrice Symonee Hill, of Birmingham, already have been charged with capital murder in the Friday morning death of a woman in Auburn. Hill is not charged in Harris’ slaying.

Hightower was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 2:10 p.m. Monday and is being held without bond. Hill is being held without bond in the Lee County Detention Center.

His sheboon girlfriend, Kentrice Symonee Hill, is also charged with one murder

Additionally, Hightower is suspected in the slayings of a Dadeville couple of their bodies were discovered in their home Friday night. Both had been shot to death. And, Shelby County sheriff’s officials are working to obtain formal warrants against the Columbus man in the Friday robberies of three people inside a Chelsea urgent care office.

The first known death is 54-year-old Nancy Nash. Auburn police responded to the Farmville Volunteer Fire Department’s call for assistance on a vehicle fire in the 9500 block of U.S. Highway 280 West around 6 a.m. Friday. When officers arrived, they found a white 2005 Chevrolet Silverado truck on fire Nash dead nearby at Creative Habitats Landscaping.

Next, Hightower is believed to have been involved in the double murder of a couple in Dadeville Friday evening. It wasn’t immediately clear when the couple was killed, but they were found Friday night by a concerned family member, said Dadeville Police Chief Johnathan Floyd. Floyd identified the victims on Saturday as Willie Tidwell, 61, and his wife Barbara, 65. Floyd said they were communicating with Birmingham investigators and Hightower is the suspect, but no charges have yet been filed.

Little is known about Hightower and what may have prompted the spate of violence in which he is accused. Public records indicate Hightower went to prison in Georgia in 2006 on cocaine charges and again in 2014 on an aggravated assault conviction. He was sentenced to 10 years in the assault case but it wasn’t clear how long he actually served.

Two of the victims, Barbara and Willie Tidwell, are confirmed white