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The boyfriend of a Danville woman murdered two months ago was arrested Monday in an unrelated case after a brief foot chase, police said.
About 1:40 p.m., Derrick Montez Ball, 25, of 414 Patrician Place, was a passenger in a 1999 silver Jeep on Adams Street near Stanford Avenue, said Boyle County Sheriff Marty Elliott. A deputy pulled over the driver of the Jeep, Jesse L. Mayberry, 29, of 484 Patrician Place, to give him traffic tickets for speeding and reckless driving, according to a police report.
During the traffic stop, the deputy patted down Ball to check for contraband and Ball allegedly ran away, police said. Deputy Casey McCoy caught up with the suspect and detained him using a Taser. Ball was carrying a Ruger .380-caliber pistol that previously was reported stolen from a Danville business, Elliott said.
Ball handed over a large quantity of crack cocaine and cash to police, but he also had tried to ingest an undetermined quantity of marijuana before he exited the vehicle, police said.
During the arrest process, authorities learned Ball had outstanding warrants for first-degree robbery and the kidnapping of an adult. That alleged crime is also tied to the Oct. 10 shooting death of Mellisa Luna-White, court records show.
Ball was Luna-White’s boyfriend and reportedly tried to fight off the man accused of killing her, police said.
A number of crimes including the warrants that led to Ball’s arrest Monday are tied to Luna-White’s murder, according to court records.
On July 4, Ball allegedly held acquaintance David J. Harlan, 23, at gunpoint and demanded money and prescription drugs, according to a criminal complaint filed in Boyle Circuit Court. Ball allegedly forced the victim to strip nude and pressed the gun to the back of his head, court records show. The robbery netted $450 and prescription antibiotics.
The day of Luna-White’s murder in October, Harlan and Lamar Stallworth, 27, went to her apartment at 528 Longview Drive, according to court records. Ball was at the scene and scuffled with Stallworth as Stallworth shot the two rounds that killed Luna-White, police said. A grand jury did not indict Harlan but recently charged Stallworth with murder and first-degree wanton endangerment in connection with Luna-White’s murder.
Ball has had frequent dealings with law enforcement in the past and pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in 2009, said Boyle Deputy Derek Robbins. At the time of her death, Luna-White had been indicted for tampering with evidence in the Nov. 11, 2011, strangulation death of Michael Begley Jr., 27, of Richmond. Luna-White’s sister, Gina Priest, and estranged husband, Jordan Montez White, also both face charges in connection with Begley’s death.
Authorities still do not know whether the gunshots in the Oct. 10 shooting were intended for Ball or Luna-White.
Ball was transported to the Boyle County Detention Center. In addition to the outstanding first-degree robbery and kidnapping charges, Ball faces counts of first-degree fleeing and evading police, second offense trafficking in a controlled substance, receiving stolen property, tampering with physical evidence, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and carrying a concealed weapon.
As of this morning, he was being held without bond.
Staff Writer David Brock contributed to this report.