Preliminary Hearing Set For Suspect In Brookwood Double Murder

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A preliminary hearing has been scheduled later this month for the man charged with capital murder following a double homicide in Brookwood.

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Tuscaloosa County District Court Judge Joanne Jannik has set a preliminary hearing for 2 p.m. on July 23 at the Tuscaloosa County Jail for Dekendrick Breon Crawford, who is charged with capital murder.

As Patch previously reported, Crawford is facing two pending cases, including the capital murder charge for the shooting deaths of 31-year-old Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas and 22-year-old University of Alabama student Jazmine Alexis Bates.

In a separate case that occurred in May, Crawford is also accused of firing a gun into an occupied building in the area of Coleman Coliseum after being fired from a contracting job.

Crawford was taken into custody after the Brookwood Police Department responded to the 1200 block of Alabama Junction Road in reference to a welfare check on July 6 after a resident of the home observed a man on her surveillance camera who should not have been there.

Court records show the resident could not make contact with the individual she had asked to dog sit for her and Brookwood police were eventually able to enter the residence, where they located a deceased man on the floor of the living room.

Investigators identified the man as Alvarez-Duenas and said he had been shot to death.

A search of the home then resulted in investigators finding Bates shot to death in a closet in a back bedroom.

Crawford, who also goes by the alias "Chick," was later identified as the man on the surveillance footage, with the woman who lived in the house telling police she knew it was Crawford because she had worked with him in the past.

Court records say Crawford can be seen in the footage exiting the home, at which point he throws something out into the woods behind the residence.

Investigators later located Alvarez-Duenas' phone and driver's license in the area where Crawford threw the items.

The video was also observed by members of law enforcement who knew Crawford and he was positively identified as the individual in the camera footage.

Investigators said only Crawford can be seen exiting the residence until police made the discovery of the bodies.

"We have no reason to believe these victims had done anything to deserve this," VCU Commander Capt. Jack Kennedy said during a press conference earlier this month. "We don't know why they were targeted. They weren't doing anything wrong. They had done nothing wrong to the suspect."

As Patch previously reported, the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit said Crawford did not have any violent criminal record prior to earlier this year but did say it appears his behavior began to change after he became a wanted man for an unrelated shooting on the University of Alabama campus in May.

Court records show that on May 21, the University of Alabama Police Department began investigating a shooting at 1201 Coliseum Drive — the listed address for Coleman Coliseum.

The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit subsequently responded to the scene, where they recovered shell casings and a projectile.

Investigators also reportedly photographed one bullet defect on a building, presumably the coliseum.

Police then spoke with Crawford's work supervisor, who said he had terminated Crawford's employment with a local construction firm.

The man then said as Crawford was about to get into a vehicle to leave, he began holding a handgun up in the air and shooting. Court records show this was later corroborated by security camera footage pulled from under the Second Avenue bridge.

Another witness told investigators that they were inside the building at a desk when they heard a loud noise.

This witness said when he came outside, the police were there and he realized it was gun shots that he'd heard.

Crawford remains in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bond on the capital murder charge.

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