Robbery suspect sent back to jail Collins ordered held on $250,000 bond

Published 12:08 pm Thursday, December 16, 2010

Derrick Collins, a former assistant coach at Porters Chapel Academy accused of robbing a Vicksburg bank Tuesday, was ordered Wednesday back to the Warren County Jail.

Collins, 45, 170 Shannon Lane, made his initial court appearance in front of Warren County Justice Court Judge Jeff Crevitt, who ordered the suspect held on a $250,000 bond.

Warren County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Chris Satcher told the court that Collins robbed Britton & Koontz Bank on U.S. 61 North of more than $3,000 before leading county officials on a chase on and around Mississippi 27, at speeds that reached 100 mph. The pursuit continued at 90 mph even after deputies flattened two of the tires on the van Collins was driving, Satcher said, before it crashed into an investigator’s car.

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“The only way to get him to stop,” Satcher told the judge, “was to disable his car.”

Collins appeared in court with his attorney, Jerry Campbell of Vicksburg.

“We have not had a chance to present certain mitigating factors,” Campbell said after the hearing. “Those factors may justify a reduction in bond.

“There was another person in the vehicle” who robbed the bank, Campbell said he was told by Collins. He told Campbell that he unwillingly drove the man to the bank. Collins did not tell Campbell who the man was, the attorney said.

“Collins should not have eluded police,” Campbell said. “But he got scared because of his past arrests when he saw the police and took off.”

Collins was released from the Mississippi Department of Corrections in 2000 after serving five years for a conviction of bank robbery, armed robbery, burglary and uttering a forgery charges in Harrison County in 1995.

Sheriff Martin Pace said Wednesday that a makeshift mask and gloves used in Tuesday’s robbery had been found.

“Investigators found them after searching the roads Collins drove while trying to get away,” Pace said. The evidence has been sent to the crime lab in Jackson to be tested for DNA.

Satcher said he expects Collins’ case to be presented by the Warren County District Attorney’s Office to the next term of the grand jury, in January.

In Vicksburg, Collins has been charged with several misdemeanors and at least one felony, a charge that was dropped after restitution was paid, Vicksburg Police Department records show.

He also reportedly served in the U.S. military and was employed by a Mississippi Gulf Coast police department.

For the past year, Collins has been a part-time football and basketball coach at PCA, a private elementary and high school on Porters Chapel Road.