Murder suspect now in Vermilion Parish jail

A man facing murder charges in Abbeville mistakenly released from jail earlier this year is now back behind bars in Vermilion Parish.
Derrick Mitchell, 24, was booked into the Vermilion Parish Correctional Center at 1:15 a.m. on Tuesday. Mitchell will remain there while awaiting trail for first-degree murder charges in connection to the 2012 death of Darrell Broussard Jr. of Abbeville.
Mitchell was released from a Tensas Parish jail on March 1 after completing a sentence for previous drug and battery charges. He had been transferred to Tensas from a jail in Avoyelles Parish.
“He was not supposed to be released,” Abbeville Police Department Lt. David Hardy said. “He was released because a detainer, apparently, from one jail to another did not get sent.
“He had served the time for the charge he was doing the time for and was then released on that.”
Mitchell should have been transferred to Abbeville in March. Upon his release, Mitchell traveled to California, ending up in Stockton, about 50 miles south of Sacramento.
It was a class regarding warrants taken by Abbeville detectives that helped them locate Mitchell.
“It was a free class in Shreveport,” Hardy said. “It took three hours to go to the class. The class took two hours and it took three hours to drive back.
“Look what it did.”
After pinpointing Mitchell’s possible location, Abbeville Police worked closely with FBI agents, who eventually arrested Mitchell in Stockton. He was placed in San Joaquin County Jail, before being released Friday into the custody of the Department of Corrections officials, who brought Mitchell back to Vermilion.
Mitchell will eventually go to trial, accused in the Dec. 21, 2012 death of Darrell Broussard Jr. Broussard was found dead in his home.
Hardy announced during a town hall meeting that focused on open homicide cases in August of 2014 that an indictment for first-degree murder had been brought down on Mitchell in connection to Broussard’s death.
Hardy said the circumstances of the last few months have been frustrating.
“It’s frustrating when you have someone incarcerated and you don’t expect them to be out,” Hardy said of Mitchell being free prior to standing trial in Vermilion. “Then you get a phone call saying this person is out of jail.
“If the public only knew the amount of man hours that go into these cases, I think they would share in that frustration.”