Home Invasion: What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Suspects arrested in home invasion case
By Matthew Jackson
Staff Reporter, Huntsville, TX Item
Huntsville police arrested two suspects Friday in connection with an armed home invasion that took place at a north Huntsville residence earlier this week.
Derryck Deshaun Collins, 26, and Wesley Allen Epps, 25, were arrested early Friday after a 48-hour investigation conducted by a task force of HPD Detectives.
On Feb. 4 at approximately 8 p.m., a woman at a residence on Ross Street heard a strange noise and a dog barking outside her home. She went to her front door, looked out the peephole and spotted a black male standing on her porch.
She heard the man say: “Is anybody home?” but was unsure if he was speaking to her or to someone else outside.
Moments later, the man kicked down the door and entered the residence.
Another man, apparently lying in wait in a corner of the porch, also entered, brandishing a handgun.
As one assailant held the suspect at gunpoint, the other ripped a phone from the wall and used the cord to tie her hands.
With the victim incapacitated, both men began ransacking the house while repeatedly asking the woman a single question: “Where is it?”
“They kept asking her where is it, and she said she had no idea what they were talking about,” said Sgt. Jim Barnes of the HPD’s criminal investigation division.
According to Barnes, the men tore through the home for 20 minutes, ripping out drawers and rifling through closets. At one point the men dragged their bound victim into the bedroom, placed her on the floor, and threw the mattress from her bed on top of her to further immobilize her.
The men then left, taking with them a flat screen television that they had ripped from the living room wall.
Their victim, still bound and pinned under a mattress, did not move for approximately one hour, terrified that her assailants would return.
Eventually, she was able to crawl from under the mattress and get to a neighbor’s house, where she called police at 9:25 p.m.
Barnes and Detective Marvin Hyvl responded to the residence that night and conducted an investigation. While searching the house, they discovered a large amount of marijuana and cocaine.
“It wasn’t a huge amount, but it was definitely not personal use,” Barnes said. “It looked like a for sale amount.”
The victim’s boyfriend, the owner of the home, returned home shortly after the incident.
Initially it was believed that only the television was missing, but after the victim’s took an inventory of their belongings, they discovered that several more items including clothing, jewelry and cash were taken.
After working late into the night on Wednesday, Barnes and Hyvl found themselves with solid leads. On Thursday morning, Hyvl obtained felony warrants for two suspects and the investigation turned toward locating the two men responsible.
On Friday, after detectives received information on possible locations of their suspects, Lt. Darryle Slaven and Lt. Kevin Lunsford organized a violent offender task force made up of detectives and patrol officers to apprehend two men they believed to be responsible for the robbery.
“We didn’t want to take chances with these guys, since they were believed to be dangerous,” Lunsford said. “So we got a group together to go after them.”
After receiving information that Collins could be found at the Oaks Apartments on Hickory Drive, the task force headed for the apartment complex.
Upon arrival at the complex, the officers found that Collins was not home, but through his associates, police were able to speak with Collins via cell phone.
“We were able to get him on the phone and talk with him, and he agreed to turn himself in,” Lunsford said. “We also received consent to search the residence and found the television that was stolen.”
While the task force was at the apartment complex, their second suspect, Epps, coincidentally arrived at the residence.
After pulling up in his vehicle, Epps apparently spotted the patrol cars in the parking lot and turned to flee. Officers noticed him leaving and pursued, eventually apprehending him peacefully several blocks away.
Epps was later found to have small amounts of marijuana and PCP, as well as a handgun, in his vehicle.
Collins surrendered to police at approximately 1 p.m.
Epps and Collins were transported to the Walker County Jail, where they were both booked on charges of aggravated robbery. As of Friday, bail had not been set.
Though suspects are now behind bars, the investigation continues into the ownership of the drugs found in the home.
“At this point no one is being charged with those drugs pending further investigation,” Barnes said. “We’re not sure if they were in the home in the first place or if they were left there by the robbers, but we’re still investigating that.”
Detectives are also still working to assign motive to the case, but given the circumstance, it appears to be a drug-related crime.
“We’re leaning toward the motive possibly being drug-related due to the ransacking of the house and the drugs found in the home,” Barnes said. “But all of that is still under investigation.”
