LUCEDALE, Miss. – The man accused with fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy had prior criminal offenses in both Mississippi and Alabama. According to records.
Law enforcement officials identified 43-year-old Rickey Powell as the suspect who shot Deputy Jeremy Malone during a traffic stop January 4th 2024. Powell was later shot and killed by law enforcement officers in Perry County after a chase through three counties.
Powell reportedly had a criminal history in Mississippi dating back to at least 2005. Records show he had spent time at Mississippi’s Parchman State Penitentiary for auto burglary and forgery. His criminal record stretches back over three decades to when he lived in Mobile County. In 1998, Powell was arrested at the age of 18 and charged with burglary. Court records show he pleaded guilty in 1999 to second-degree burglary and received a five-year sentence with all but seven months suspended, followed by probation. In 2007, Powell was arrested on a charge of possession of marijuana but failed to appear for court hearings.
According to court records, Powell was involved in an incident where a woman’s 18-year-old daughter found three men inside her trailer home in Irvington. Allegedly Powell was one of the men and attempted to conceal his identity by putting a sheet over his head. The judge revoked his probation in January for failing to comply with his probation terms. During his time in prison, Powell sent a letter complaining that he did not receive credit for his previous jail time.
In 2007, he was arrested on a charge of possession of marijuana, and prosecutors indicated that they intended to seek enhanced penalties under the habitual offender law. However, Powell failed to appear for his court hearings. The judge to issue a warrant for his arrest. Despite this, he was never apprehended, and the case was transferred to the administrative docket in 2009.