Acquitted in attack, Louisville man jailed on weapons charge

Staff Report

Submitted by jail

Derrick Akins was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in Hardin Circuit Court Tuesday. He has a pending assault case scheduled for trial Sept. 22.

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ELIZABETHTOWN — A 35-year-old Louisville man charged last year with the kidnapping and rape of a woman at gunpoint was formally sentenced Tuesday to 12 years imprisonment for convictions of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and for being a persistent felony offender.

Derrick D’Keith Akins was found not guilty of rape and kidnapping charges during an April 17 trial in Hardin Circuit Court, but the jury found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a handgun and, because of that, being a persistent felony offender.

Akins was arrested on several outstanding felony warrants last spring when Elizabethtown police found him walking along Valley Creek Road. When arrested, he was in possession of marijuana and a 9mm handgun — thought to be the same weapon used in the carjacking that spurred the rape and kidnapping charges.

He previously had been charged with assault in a case in which he allegedly choked a woman at a Ponderosa Mobile Home Park residence and police suspected that same weapon might have been used in the sexual assault case.

He’s scheduled to go to trial on the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park case in September. Acting as his own attorney, Akins has filed several motions. He first asked for a speedy trial and then asked for the case to be dismissed because of delays. He’s not had a hearing on any of his motions, according to court records.

Susie Hurst, a public defender who represented Akins in the attempted murder case, declined comment on the outstanding case.

Akins, who is being held at the Hardin County Detention Center, was unavailable for comment.