Gerald Winston Surratt Jr. - Crime, Punishment, & Parole - 2023 Update

Gerald Winston Surratt Jr. came from what most in the Shoals would call a privileged environment, yet his early life was far from perfect. Surratt’s father had substance abuse problems and wasn’t always there for the young man who called himself Gerry or Jerry. When the younger Surratt was 18, his father died. Two years later, Gerry was arrested in Lauderdale County on charges of Drug Possession, Breaking and Entering a Vehicle, and Burglary.

Between the years 2006 and 2019, Surratt was arrested at least 31 times. Most of these arrests were related to either drugs or theft, but some were more sinister. His 2006 arrest at the age of 20 garnered the young Florence man a sentence of 10 years, indicating he already had a juvenile record.

During Surratt’s stay in an Alabama Department of Corrections facility, he was denied parole. Gerry also lost correctional incentive time due to bad behavior and lacked two weeks serving five years on a sentence he could have completed in 40 months. Finally released in August 2011, the now 26 year-old Surratt returned to Florence and began work for Hensley Properties, a company founded by his great-uncle.

Shortly after his return to the Shoals, Surratt also acquired a live-in girlfriend. This unfortunate young woman later stated that the longer she knew Surratt, the more she feared him.

In March 2012, a young woman was kidnapped from the UNA parking garage and forced to take her armed abductor to the Bank Independent ATM on Pine Street. There the kidnapper had his victim withdraw the maximum amount allowed; together with what cash the young woman had in her billfold, the kidnapper netted just under $600.00. He then had his victim return to the parking deck where a nearby male student became suspicious of the situation. The kidnapper ran when confronted and has never been officially identified.

An artist’s sketch greatly resembled Surratt, who was also questioned about an armed North Florence home invasion from earlier the same day. Unfortunately, the UNA victim was unable to identify her attacker with 100% certainty. She reportedly left the university a short time after her ordeal, and the case remains officially unsolved.

Yet Surratt’s girlfriend and others were convinced that Gerry was the wanted felon. The romantic relationship soured shortly thereafter, and Surratt began to date a young woman who resided in Sheffield.

In May 2012, Surratt was visiting his new girlfriend in her apartment where both consumed alcohol. When a second woman who lived in the apartment arrived, she was concerned, later telling police that she didn’t like Surratt. The roommate retired to her bedroom and locked the door.

According to the roommate, approximately two hours later, she awoke to find Surratt in her bed, fondling her sexually and kissing her neck. The terrified young woman managed to escape and call both her boyfriend and Sheffield Police. Surratt was arrested on charges of First Degree Sexual Abuse; however, an August 2012 Colbert County grand jury failed to indict Gerry.

Many asked at the time how Surratt could have entered the roommate’s locked bedroom? It may have been simple; friends of Surratt told stories of the Hensley Properties maintenance man having several master keys that fit many locks, not just the ones in the apartment complexes owned by Hensley Properties. After all, Gerald Surratt Jr. was nothing if not an accomplished burglar.

Surratt continued to live in Polynesian Village Apartments and work for his late uncle’s company; however, authorities say Gerry augmented his income by the occasional home or car burglary. After a long string of arrests that Surratt was always able to wrangle out of, his deviant sexual proclivities again landed him in jail. The then 30 year-old sometime maintenance man contacted at least two young teenage girls on Facebook, sending them live feeds of him masturbating.

One Place of the Shoals pieced together a case against Surratt, having him arrested in July 2016 on a charge of Electronic Transmission of Obscene Material. It would be a year before Gerry was indicted on the lesser charge of Indecent Exposure. Ultimately, Surratt again managed to avoid any real punishment for his crimes against an innocent young woman.

During this time frame, Surratt boasted that he was above the law. His family had money to pay for the best defense, and his second cousin Benjamin Graves was now a sitting Lauderdale County Circuit Court judge. While Graves was indeed Billy Hensley’s grandson, it’s doubtful that Surratt actually found this connection helpful. A good defense attorney and crowded state prisons were more likely reasons for Gerry’s continued freedom.

Perhaps emboldened by this lack of punishment, Surratt continued to exhibit anti-social tendencies against women. After several complaints, the University of North Alabama Police banned Gerry from the campus in May 2018. The university wasn’t the only entity to ban Surratt. The social pariah was also banished from Walmart Stores where he ostensibly made a second career of shoplifting electronics and other items to peddle on his Facebook page.

In November 2018, Florence Police announced that Gerald Surratt was a suspect in a rash of burglaries at and near Florence Mall. Authorities say Gerry broke into numerous residences, as well as retail establishments including Castner-Knott Beauty Shop.

It didn’t take long to apprehend Surratt, who was already on probation in several cases. Perhaps Gerry’s family saw the futility of continuing to assist him, especially since his younger brother Corey Taft Surratt had also now taken up the mantle of armed robber. Nevertheless, Gerry posted bond, but was soon re-arrested with the added charge of escape/absconding.

Gerry Surratt was convicted in Lauderdale County in August 2019 on a charge of Burglary. The court took Surratt’s record into consideration and ultimately sentenced the career felon to 15 years. He’s currently serving his time in the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison.

According to Department of Corrections records, Surratt has not been a model prisoner. He currently has lost six months of correctional incentive time due to his behavior and is being held in “Close Custody,” the most secure status outside of solitary confinement or death row.

Gerry Surratt will end his sentence on November 19, 2023; however, he will be eligible for parole consideration on June 1, 2021. With his current record, it’s extremely doubtful that Surratt will even come close to making parole, but with the right attorney, it’s not to be ruled out.

If you have been a victim of Gerald Surratt, you may write a protest letter to the parole board here:


Alabama Board of Pardons & Paroles
Re: Gerald Winston Surratt Jr., AIS# 259912
100 Capitol Commerce Boulevard - Suite 310
Montgomery, AL 36117

Gerald Winston Surratt Jr. was denied parole; however, that didn't stop his ultimate release. Under a mandatory early release program enacted in 2015, Gerry was released nearly a year before the end of his sentence.

The mandatory early release program is highly supervised, and Surratt lasted only a few months before violating the terms of his parole. He was taken into state custody in early December 2022 and remains awaiting transfer back to the state prison system as of February 2023. His new end of sentence date is February 19, 2024.

As news of his parole failure became known, one young local woman commented: 

I worked with Gerry like 12 years ago at Demos. I hadn't seen him in years and I got a video call from him on FB last year. My dumb a** answered it and it was him, in prison, playing with himself... Needless to say I never answer video calls anymore...

Corey Seahorn: Kidnapper & Child Pornographer

 

Corey Mack Seahorn was born in 1977 in Colbert County, Alabama. Friends say that as one of four children, Seahorn led a relatively normal life growing up in a home where he lacked for little. As he grew older, he made no secret of his homosexuality and as an adult entered into an undocumented marriage with a male partner in Louisiana.

After that relationship broke up, Seahorn returned to Alabama. He quickly set himself up as a legally ordained minister, but he didn't stop there. He also advertised himself as a medical doctor and a psychologist, despite having no degrees to back up his claims. Then things turned very strange indeed.

While reportedly under the influence of alcohol, Seahorn and a friend from Moulton kidnapped a young man at gunpoint from a Littleville convenience store. Corey had met the teen the previous year and was seeking to force him into a marriage. After sobering up, Seahorn returned the then 16 year-old boy to the Colbert County Sheriff''s office and was promptly arrested.

From an April 2019 news account:

Almost three years ago, Corey Mack Seahorn and an accomplice kidnapped a young man in Littleville. Now, the fake doctor/psychologist has been arrested on over 75 counts of possession of child pornography.

Seahorn is originally from Franklin County, but had lived out of state for several years when he returned to the area ostensibly married to a male. Whatever the relationship was, it was short-lived, and Seahorn soon found himself single and in love again.

This time Seahorn's beloved was a 15 year old male, a boy whose mother had also had a relationship with Seahorn. The self-proclaimed physician/psychologist soon found himself spurned and arranged to kidnap the young man, by then 16, in order to establish their romance.

According to Seahorn, he and a friend had been drinking when they came up with the plan to abduct the youth from a Littleville mini-mart. When Seahorn sobered up, he called the Colbert County sheriff's office to ask if he were in any serious trouble. Told that he was in the clear, Seahorn returned the boy to the authorities and was immediately arrested.

During the initial investigation, it came to light that Seahorn was posing as both someone with a medical doctorate and a PhD in psychology. He was reported to the appropriate boards, but without anyone to press charges, nothing was done about his ruse.

Now Corey Mack Seahorn, 41, has been arrested in Lauderdale on charges of both possession and production of child pornography. He was reported by the mother of a young boy whom he was ostensibly grooming for a sexual relationship. He remains in the Lauderdale County Detention Center at this time. 

Seahorn never made it to court on either his Colbert County kidnapping charge or his Lauderdale child pornography charges. From a second April 2019 news report:

An accused child pornographer has died while being held in solitary confinement in the Lauderdale County Detention Center. Authorities say Corey Mack Seahorn of Franklin County was found unreponsive in his single bed cell early on Sunday morning. His death is believed to be from natural causes, but an autopsy will be conducted for conclusive findings.

Seahorn made Shoals headlines three years ago when he kidnapped a teenage boy from Colbert County. At the time of his arrest on over 75 child pornography charges in Lauderdale, the 41 year old Seahorn had not been tried on the kidnapping charge. He was being held on over 400K bond.

On April 7, 2019, Corey Mack Seahorn was declared dead in his cell in the Lauderdale County Detention Center. At the time, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton stated that Seahorn had multiple health problems, and his demise was ruled from natural causes.

Seahorn's family buried him in the Bethlehem Cemetery in the Mountain Star Community in Franklin County. His published obituary received two comments of condolence. The public is now left to ponder the unknown fate of his kidnap victim and the children he involved in his pornographic image collection.

Bobby Joe Speegle: Sold His Daughter into Sexual Slavery

 

We hear the term "human trafficking" almost every day in the news. What does it really signify? It can mean either forcing someone into providing labor or sexual favors. Often it's the victim's own family members who commit these crimes. This is the case of Bobby Joe Speegle who sold his teenage daughter into sexual slavery.

Bobby Joe, one of four children, was born into a Tuscumbia family during the nation's bicentennial. That may sound like an auspicious start in life, but in reality Bobby's parents soon divorced, and he and at least one of his brothers often ran afoul of the law.

In 2012, Speegle was living in a small camper at Muscle Shoals Trailer Park on Wilson Dam Road. He was reportedly well known to his neighbors who suspected the then 36 year-old park resident of dealing in meth. When several residents heard an explosion one Saturday afternoon in early June, they immediately thought of Bobby Joe and his impromptu meth cooks.

Several calls to authorities soon brought numerous law enforcement personnel to the scene. There they found Speegle attempting to clean the soot and ammonium nitrate debris from his living quarters as a second man ran into a wooded area behind the trailer park. While the police were still taking in the scene, Bobby Joe's girlfriend arrived and soon admitted she had purchased the pseudoephedrine needed to concoct the meth. While the second man eluded officers, they did find evidence of a one-pot cook and receipts for chemicals that he had hidden in the thick vegetation.

Bobby Joe Speegle was now in a lot of trouble. Muscle Shoals authorities found that Speegle had a warrant in that city for failing to appear in municipal court. He spent the rest of the weekend in the town's small jail before being transferred to the county's facilities where he was charged with his drug crimes. 

After spending five months in the Colbert County Jail, Speegle was convicted of the crime of manufacturing methamphetamine. A judge sentenced the hapless meth maven to 18 months in the state prison system, and Bobby Joe was soon on his way to Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery. He remained in the correctional system until December 1, 2013.

Once home, Speegle made little to no attempt to stay away from drugs, despite having a young daughter. Indeed, Speegle was destined to become a parent who brought unimaginable evil upon his child.

In November 2018, Bobby Joe Speegle was again living in Muscle Shoals, again heavily into drugs, and again broke. Then he met a 32 year-old Sheffield drug dealer who was willing to talk trade. What did this enterprising street pharmacist want in exchange for his wares? Bobby Joe's 17 year-old daughter.

Authorities say that on November 14th, Speegle provided the young teen with a drugged drink. He is alleged to have then taken her to the Sheffield home of his drug dealer. The teen's next memory is waking up to the brutal realization that she was in a strange home being raped. 

After managing to escape, the teenager submitted to a sexual assault examination in a local hospital. A Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner was familiar with the custom of tattooing sex traffic victims and checked the victim specifically for this type of marking.

Black light tattoos show up when the light is projected onto the tattooed area. Below is an example of a hand tattooed with black light ink:

The SANE was shocked to find that the young teen's inner thigh had been marked with an inscription describing her as the property of the drug dealer. 

Authorities now arrested Bobby Joe Speegle on charges of Promoting Prostitution and Providing False Information to Law Enforcement. Due to the nature of his crime, Speegle was initially held in the Morgan County Jail for his own safety. He ultimately pleaded guilty to the charge of Promoting Prostitution and was sentenced in March 2022 to ten years in the state prison system.

Speegle is currently in the Limestone Correctional Facility with a release date of 10/17/24, Upon his release, he will be required to register as a Sex Offender. Will he then return to the Shoals? Since Bobby Joe has both immediate and extended family in the area, it's indeed likely that he will. 

The public will be watching...

The Fountain Lanes Murder

 

The Crime:

Bowling has always been considered a blue collar sport, but when Fountain Lanes was built in the late 1950s on the recently opened Florence Boulevard, it sought a new type of clientele. These new lanes were to attract young families, upscale professionals, and even Girl Scouts earning merit badges. Yet it didn't take long for the sports venue to show a much darker side.

It was the second day of the new year 1962 when Travis L. Pounders and a friend decided to visit the bowling alley. Pounders was married, the owner of a new home on Tune Avenue, and the chief traffic clerk at Southern Railway in Sheffield. In short, the 33 year-old Pounders appeared to be an upstanding citizen.

While Pounders and his companion bowled, four Florence youths ranging in age from 18 to 23 entered the alley. Lauderdale prosecutors later referred to the Weeden Heights boys as "thugs" and "hoods." 

At some point during that Tuesday evening, Pounders and his friend retired to the men's room where they were alleged to have been drinking alcohol from paper cups. It was in the restroom that 23 year-old Jerry Rogers heard Pounders make a derogatory remark about his leather jacket. Rogers later told his friends that the older men had threatened to "whip him," but this was never substantiated.

Shortly after the restroom incident, both groups left Fountain Lanes only seconds apart. It was then that Rogers decided to confront the two older men, hitting Pounders in the mouth and knocking him against Carver May. The 20 year-old May then struck Pounders on the head, but the victim seemed unfazed and lunged at Rogers. At that point, Rogers produced a large pocket knife and fatally stabbed Pounders in the heart, nicking the left lung. All four of the Weeden Heights youths fled the scene.

Fountain Lanes management placed a call to authorities at 10:16. A nearby ambulance transported Pounders to the ECM emergency department where he was pronounced dead shortly before 10:30 p.m. The Florence Police Department then initiated a search for the four young men.

The Aftermath:

It took only hours to arrest the four Weeden Heights youths; all were charged two days later with First Degree Murder (now Capital Murder) and faced a possible death penalty. Ultimately charges against two of the young men (names intentionally omitted) were dramatically reduced.

Only Jerry Rogers and Carver May were convicted of Manslaughter. May contended the blow he delivered to the back of Travis Pounders' head was inconsequential. His defense attempted to prove the bruise on the back of the victim's head could have been caused by his final fall to the pavement after being stabbed. Carver May was convicted and sentenced to six years in the state prison system.

The case against Jerry Rogers was much more complex. At 23, he was the oldest of the group. Unemployed, he had a reputation of liking to "cut" people. While Rogers had attempted to destroy the murder weapon, detectives found him in possession of a second knife covered in opossum's blood; seemingly Jerry was a threat to more than humans. In the past five years, he had been arrested twice for knife assault, but never served any substantial time. Jerry Rogers was sentenced to 90 years behind bars.

Sixty years later, do patrons of Fountain Lanes (now called Lauderdale Lanes) realize they step atop the scene of a murder each time they enter or depart the establishment? Perhaps in today's society, it's more of a question of do they even care.

Cold & Lonely in Lexington? Did That Cost Christy Her Life?

 

From Crime Writer Nick Ireland:

Being of the single persuasion, I can tell you exactly what to do if you're cold and lonely in Huntsville. Take a walk on the wild side down Governors Drive to one of its elegant establishments where you'll find the cure for both cold and lonely. What do you do if you live in a super small burg like Lexington just south of the Tennessee line? There's always Minor Hill.

You can bet the dating pool is stocked with rejects that only look good after a full bottle of Fireball. Maybe that's just what happened when Christy Lynn Shelton McKee met Casey Cole White. She was 31 and already had three daughters by at least two upstanding geezers who apparently didn't include marriage in their come-on lines. She was also married at this point, but we're guessing the union was on some serious rocks for her to be dating Casey Cole White.

White lived in the nearby village of Anderson. At 24, he already had a long rap sheet, but that didn't stop tall, dark, and gruesome from latching onto Christy. If her marriage had been troubled, so were other aspects of her home life. Her youngest daughter had special needs, and joy was hard to come by during the daily humdrum. A player like our Casey must have known just how to work that to his advantage.

Then on February 1, 2008, Christy's life was over, ended by the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. Casey told everyone who would listen that Christy had pulled the trigger herself, and no one seemed to question him. That is except Christy's kids who never believed that, despite her flaws, she would have taken what's usually called an easy way out.

The next seven years passed quickly, and Casey had a new girlfriend, but things didn't go well when he tried to kill her. They went even worse when he then went on the lam. He got 75 years with no good time. Bummer.

But Casey, being the kind of hustler he was, had a plan. A daring escape facilitated by his latest and almost geriatric, waddling squeeze saw him again free and on the run to places without extradition laws. Enter the feds who began to take a look at his past life. Pretty unfortunate for Casey with his nefarious history as a lady-killer.

It didn't take long to discover his past involvement with Christy. While her disabled child had died, her two remaining daughters wanted the answers they had never gotten fourteen years before. 

Will the guys in suits be able to try Casey Cole White for two murders instead of one? At this point, we're all just placing our bets and buttering the popcorn.

A Lonely Woman, an Illegal Alien, and a Brutal Murder

 

Angel Campos-Nava of El Terrero, Mexico, was in his late 20s when he arrived in Russellville, Alabama. He had no passport, work visa, or money. What he did have was an unrealistic view of what his life in the U.S. would be like.

Campos soon discovered that he was lacking in much it took to succeed in this country. Then he met Lesley Hope Plott. Campos didn't care if Lesley was somewhat overweight and already the mother of one child, and she didn't care if Angel stood only 5'3" and barely spoke English. They soon became a couple.

While there are no records of Plott and Campos entering into a legal marriage, they referred to themselves as husband and wife. This didn't stop Campos from demonstrating abject cruelty to Plott; police records indicate that while the couple lived together they were called at least two times to arrest Campos for violently assaulting Plott.

Finally, Lesley had enough. She had a good job at a Russellville physician's office and the emotional support of her family. She ended the relationship, but still often saw Campos when he visited their shared children or when he turned to her in need of money.

Lesley had agreed to give Angel a ride home in the early morning hours of February 22, 2013. It was slightly after one o'clock when the couple began arguing. Plott pulled over in front of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, a fact that later proved the undoing of Angel. 

At first, Campos only hit Lesley, but then he took out a knife and began to stab her repeatedly. While Lesley wouldn't live to tell her story, all of Campos' actions were recorded on CCTV cameras placed outside the church building.

Seeing that the 25 year-old mother of his three children was dead, Angel removed her body from the luxury SUV and placed it in a ditch along Jackson Avenue running in front of Good Shepherd Church. It wasn't long before a passerby discovered Lesley's brutalized remains and called the authorities. 

When Russellville Police located the 33 year-old Campos, he had multiple stab wounds - all self-inflicted. Angel was initially taken to Huntsville Hospital where he spent a week. Then Campos was placed in the Franklin County Detention Center until his arraignment.

Since video footage proved without a doubt that Lesley was in a vehicle during the deadly attack, Franklin County District Attorney charged Campos with Capital Murder. Rebecca Green Thomason agreed to act as Angel's attorney and quickly began work to save his life.

With financial help from the Mexican Capital Assistance Program, Thomason was able to secure an interpretator who spoke the same Southern Mexican dialect as Campos. She then became aware of the extreme poverty and violence in which he had grown up in the state of Guerrero.

After presenting his background to Joey Rushing, Lesley's family agreed to remove the death penalty from legal options. Campos agreed to a sentence of Life with Possibility of Parole. Today, Angel Campos-Nava is housed under medium security in the Easterling Correctional Center in Barbour County. He will be eligible for parole consideration in February 2028. Both Joey Rushing and Lesley Hope Plott's family will oppose his release. And if Campos should be released from the Alabama State Prison System? He will immediately be deported to Mexico. It's an outcome that no one wants to see.

Rape at O'Neal Hall: A Cover Up or Just a Local Myth?

 

Amid the new accounts of sexual assault at the University of North Alabama, we’ll look back at a 1970s attack that may or may not have actually occurred. In that era, male and female students were routinely separated as far as living quarters; only certain males were allowed in sleeping areas, and those were almost always service workers. Did a delivery man make his way to an O’Neal Hall dorm room in the middle of the workday and proceed to rape one of the students?

At the center of the rape story was a Lauderdale County native that we’ll call Todd Hunter. Todd first came to the attention of local authorities when he was accused of following young females in his rattletrap car. A long time college student, Todd was familiar with many of the campus buildings and organizations. He seemingly managed to keep a low profile when in public, but when in private, his actions became more overtly sexual…and sinister.

Years later, Todd was diagnosed with a type of schizophrenia, but at the time, most females who came into contact with Hunter simply found him obnoxious and unnerving. Due to his part-time employment at local mini-marts, many young women did unfortunately come into contact with Todd, who described these girls as eager to be in his company, even after he married.

Yes, Todd managed to marry, father two children, and move up in the world of employment while seeming to control his dark side…for a time. In the late 1970s, this disturbed young man found work with a soft drink company, a job that took him to all parts of the college campus including the girls’ dorms. Some drink machines were located on upper floors, allowing Todd to move freely about the sleeping rooms and chat with any students who came into his orbit.

While the above information has been verified, the following has not. There were always reports of attacks at the university, but many were obviously exaggerations of pranks and never reported to proper authorities. Then students found an O’Neal resident distraught in her room. 

She allegedly told her friends that a soft drink delivery man, whose name she didn’t know, had forced his way past her as she entered her room and proceeded to rape her. It took days for the crime to be reported to UNA authorities, and was supposedly never reported to the Florence Police Department. In the interim, Todd continued to deliver soft drinks to the campus.

No arrests were ever made in the alleged rape. Todd Hunter soon lost his job at the local bottling company, but gossip about the rape continued for years. Todd’s wife ultimately left him, and he died three decades later in a controlled medical facility.

Did UNA attempt to cover up this sexual assault or was it just a local urban myth to make young women more aware of their surroundings on campus? O’Neal Hall was eventually torn down to make way for an addition to what is now the Guillot Center. While most students today probably have never heard of Todd, the women who had the misfortune to encounter him still remember him and say thanks that they didn’t become his victim.