A $1 million bond and a murder charge await a Hollywood, Ala., man when he eventually returns to Scottsboro from Marion County, Tenn., to answer to accusations that he killed an elderly woman and took her car.
For the time being, Terrance Austin, 28, is being held in Jasper on an assortment of charges he netted in Marion County when Jasper police officers found him allegedly intoxicated and distraught on West Second Street on July 21.
Scottsboro police Chief Ralph Dawes said Monday that a $1 million bond had been set on the murder charge but that any other charges would come later. Austin is accused of killing 88-year-old Ruby Durham at her home.
Dawes said Durham’s body was sent to the state crime lab for a forensic examination. Preliminary results indicated that the manner of death was homicide, but a cause of death has not been released, he said.
In Marion County, Austin is charged with vandalism, arson, simple possession of a controlled substance and theft over $1,000, and he is being held without bond pending a hearing on his extradition status.
The series of events that led to the charges began at 11:30 a.m. CDT on July 21, when Jasper police found a light blue Oldsmobile burning in the driveway of a home on Browder Switch Road. Another call at 2:30 p.m. the same day led Jasper police to a man walking through town later identified as Austin, Jasper Police Lt. Scott Evans said last week.
When officers found him, Austin told officers “that he wanted to die, that he needed to die, that he was ready to go see God. He told us he deserved to lose his life because he had taken a life in Scottsboro” and at one point Austin put his hands behind his back and “asked us to shoot him,” Evans said. Austin voluntarily took officers to the burned car scene on Browder Switch Road and told them he set it on fire.
But at that point, Durham’s body hadn’t been found and wouldn’t be for another full day. Dawes said Scottsboro officers conducted a welfare check on July 22 at Durham’s home and discovered her inside.
Austin faces an extradition status hearing on Monday, Dawes said.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.