Brandon Blaine BerryA 31-year-old Woodville, Alabama, man is being held on almost $226,000 bond on kidnapping and murder charges stemming from a body found buried at a home on County Road 86 on Sept. 14.
Brandon Blaine Berry is charged with first-degree kidnapping and murder in the death of 30-year-old David Christen Lorenzo Rivamonte, who had been reported missing Sept. 8 to Huntsville police in neighboring Madison County, according to Jackson County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Rocky Harnen. Berry also has a pending bond revocation, according to jail records.
"We had a tip that he was killed and we had a deputy who talked to him a few days before that, [when he saw Rivamonte] walking down the road," Harnen said.
Harnen said the deputy encountered Rivamonte in early September before he had been reported missing.
The tip and other information Harnen said he couldn't talk about led to a residence on County Road 86, he said. The tip that Rivamonte had been killed possibly even preceded discussions about the case between Jackson County and Huntsville authorities.
"We had enough probable cause to obtain a search warrant," Harnen said.
County Road 86 lies southeast of Woodville where it crosses the Jackson-Madison county line. Only a handful of mobile homes and campers are scattered along the narrow, tar-and-chip country road.
An autopsy confirmed the body's identity as that of Rivamonte's and ruled that the Huntsville man died of a gunshot wound at the hands of someone else. Court records state Rivamonte, whose body was buried in a hole on the property, was shot with a handgun sometime on Sept. 6 or 7, according to a report by Huntsville television station WAFF.
Harnen said the relationship between the suspect and victim remains unclear.
"I don't know whether they just ran into each other or knew each other beforehand," he said.
Berry was already in custody on unrelated charges when the body was positively identified and murder and kidnapping charges were placed, Harnen said.
The unrelated charges include assault-domestic violence, third degree; criminal mischief, third degree; aggravated assault-domestic violence, and simple assault-family violence, jail records show. The list of charges ends with a bond revocation note.
Those charges stem from warrants taken out on Berry and other suspects involved in an unrelated crime, Harnen said.
No court date is pending but a preliminary hearing is expected to be set soon on the charges.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.