Authorities arrest Alabama man wanted in connection with multiple homicides

MORRILTON, Ark. -- An Alabama man wanted in connection with homicides in Oklahoma and Alabama was apprehended Thursday in Arkansas after a search that spanned multiple southern states, Arkansas State Police said.

Stacy Lee Drake, 50, was taken into custody around 10 a.m. in a wooded area in Morrilton, state police said. He was taken into custody “without incident,” the agency said in a brief statement.

Drake is wanted in connection with homicides and carjackings in Oklahoma, Arkansas State Police said. They said he’s also wanted on other felony warrants from multiple jurisdictions on charges including aggravated robbery, carjacking and murder.

A man and a woman were found dead inside a business near Gans, Oklahoma, near the Arkansas state line, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said. Both had injuries consistent with homicide, and the agency said Drake is a person of interest.

Arkansas authorities initially said Drake was wanted in three Oklahoma homicides, but OSBI spokesperson Hunter McKee said Thursday that Drake has been connected only to the two in the Gans area.

“We’re still investigating what else the suspect might have been involved in,” McKee said, but he added that Drake was not wanted for any other Oklahoma slayings.

The bodies of the two victims were sent to the state medical examiner for identification and to determine the causes of their deaths, the OSBI said.

Drake's last known address was in Birmingham, Alabama. He was being held Thursday in the Conway County Detention Center in Arkansas. Drake had an extradition hearing scheduled for Friday morning, the jail's administrator said. It was not immediately clear if Drake had an attorney.

In Alabama, Drake is accused of killing Russell Andrews on May 14, according to the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. Capt. Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit said there is a warrant for Drake on a murder charge. News outlets reported that Andrews, 62, was found dead inside the Alcoholic Anonymous building.

Tuscaloosa authorities said Andrews' vehicle was stolen when he was killed and hours later was picked up by cameras travelling along an interstate near the Arkansas-Oklahoma border.