Thompson Indicted For Santa Rosa Double Murder

August 29, 2014

A Santa Rosa County grand jury Thursday indicted Derrick Ray Thompson for a double murder last month.

Thompson was indicted  for two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of 60-year old Steven Tyrone Zackowski and 59-year old Debra Lynn Zackowski, both found shot to death in their Goliath Road home  July 20.

Thompson was previously indicted in Bay County for the killing of Allen Johnson. The State Attorney’s Office for the First Judicial Circuit intends to move forward and prosecute both cases at the same time.

Thompson allegedly fled Santa Rosa County and subsequently murdered Johnson in Bay County.

Johnson was discovered deceased on July 21. in his residence on Wilson Avenue when family members, concerned when they could not reach him by phone, went to his home, made entry and found his body.

Thompson, already a person of interest in the double homicide in Santa Rosa County, was quickly identified as a suspect. Thompson’s vehicle had been left in Johnson’s driveway and Johnson’s vehicle, a silver Toyota Tundra, was missing. Law enforcement believed Thompson had taken it.

Subsequent investigation revealed that while in Johnson’s vehicle, Thompson used money obtained from Johnson and Johnson’s cell phone to purchase illegal narcotics in Bay County shortly after the homicide. Based on this information, a warrant was obtained for Derrick Ray Thompson for the murder of Allen Johnson.

Information on the suspect and the vehicle was distributed to local media and media in the Alabama area when it was suspected that Thompson might go there. Thompson had done electrical work on a hunting lodge in that area.

A citizen in Troy, AL, familiar with a description of the vehicle from media reports, spotted the Toyota Tundra entering the hunting lease and reported it to local law enforcement. A team comprised of the US Marshals, the Troy Police Department, and the Pike County Sheriff’s Office formed a perimeter and, due to the fact Thompson was believed armed and dangerous and weather was bad, decided to wait for daybreak to move in on the suspect.

Thompson attempted to leave just before daybreak. When he got out of the Tundra to open the gate and leave the property, SWAT teams deployed a flash bang device and took the stunned Thompson into custody on the warrant from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office without further incident.

Law enforcement from Bay and Santa Rosa counties traveled to Pike County, Alabama and spoke with Thompson. After interviewing Thompson, investigators believe he committed the double murders in Santa Rosa County on Saturday, July 19, 2014. He fled Santa Rosa County and stayed that Saturday night with a friend on Panama City Beach. Sunday morning, Thompson went to Chipley and stayed overnight in a motel. After checking media reports online, he found out law enforcement had connected him to the double homicide in Santa Rosa County. On Monday, Thompson used a borrowed phone from the motel clerk and called Allen Johnson and asked if he could come to Johnson’s home on Wilson Avenue under the guise of borrowing money.

It is believed that Allen Johnson, an acquaintance of Thompson’s, was unaware that Thompson was a person of interest in the double homicide in Santa Rosa County.

Thompson was able to give law enforcement details about the murder of Allen Johnson not yet released to the public.

Allen Johnson was a deputy with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office from 1974 to 1988, working as a confidential informant prior to becoming a law enforcement officer. Johnson was the first to work undercover in drug enforcement for the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News