Wanted man sought in Autauga County taken into custody

AUTAUGA COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA) - A man wanted by multiple law enforcement agencies in central Alabama has been taken into custody, Autauga County Sheriff Mark Harrell confirmed.

The sheriff said Devontay Stanley Jones, 27, who was wanted out of Jefferson County on warrants that include trafficking marijuana and attempting to elude, was arrested Friday morning.

Jones also faces pending federal charges, authorities stated. Prattville Police posted on social media that he had previously been arrested for charges including attempted murder, robbery, and drug trafficking.

Just before 10 a.m., the Prattville Police Department said the campus of Central Alabama Community College had been evacuated of “all non-security personnel.” Ground and air units were searching around CACC and the adjacent wooded areas.

Jones’ last known residence was in the 1600 block of Chapel Ridge Drive, located in Gardendale.

He had last been seen in Prattville near mile markers 181-188 on I-65 South. Authorities believed he was moving on foot and may have been hiding in wooded areas near the interstate.

The wooded area that became the focus of the search was near the Glenbrooke neighborhood.

“It has been pretty much non-stop, anywhere from one to two helicopters,” said Randy Schath, a Glenbrooke resident whose backyard overlooks that wooded area. “This morning they just really poured it on heavy.”

Schath says like other residents they were on high alert, making sure doors were locked and there was nowhere the fugitive could hide on their property, and the suspects’ capture is a welcome sight.

“We no longer have to have that heightened alert, it was a relief,” he said. “We weren’t sure just how dangerous this situation was, because the first reports were that he was just a drug trafficker maybe, but then with this presence here we knew it had to be more than that.”

A number of agencies, including PPD, the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office, Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Marshals Service, assisted in the search.

Jones has been booked into the Autauga Metro Jail on marijuana and eluding charges and is expected to be arraigned on May 11.

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