Arrest warrants have been issued for Devyn Keith, a second-term city councilman in Huntsville, charging him with four misdemeanor counts of theft, the authorities confirmed to AL.com this afternoon.
“Mr. Keith is supposed to be turning himself in sometime today,” Brent Patterson, a spokesman for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, told AL.com. “We were not involved in any of these cases. We were only given the warrants to serve to prevent any conflict of interest with the City of Huntsville being involved.”
Keith did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AL.com on Tuesday afternoon. John Taylor, his attorney, declined to comment.
The warrants stem from an investigation by the Huntsville Police Department, which arrested Keith last week on one charge of shoplifting at the Walmart store on University Drive.
Patterson told AL.com he could not provide details about the allegations in the new warrants but said they also involve Walmart.
A spokesperson for Huntsville police did not answer questions about the case.
“These cases are being handled by the Madison County District Attorney’s Office to avoid any perception of, or potential for, conflict of interest,” Sgt. Rosalind White said in an email.
After his previous arrest on Thursday, Keith posted an apology on Facebook and said that he failed to pay for a $20 pair of headphones.
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He also described the incident as a mistake.
“No one is above the law and as someone who works for and aspires to devotedly represent the best of the people of Huntsville, I can’t make these types of mistakes,” Keith said in the Feb. 3 Facebook post. “I know I am better than this.”
Officials told AL.com Keith’s cases will be handled in Madison County District Court, rather than Huntsville Municipal Court because of his elected position. Tim Gann, the chief deputy district attorney in Madison County, said he could not yet provide additional information about the allegations, as Keith has not been served with the warrants.
Fourth-degree theft is a misdemeanor that’s punishable by up to a year in jail and fine of up to $6,000. Fourth-degree theft involves less than $500.
Keith, whose district includes much of north Huntsville and stretches into the downtown area, has been a rising star in Huntsville politics, defeating longtime councilman Richard Showers in 2016 in a runoff to first win a seat on the council. Keith has long credited Showers for the impact he had on the district and on himself. Keith was raised in north Huntsville.
In 2018, the city council elected him as its president despite Keith being just 29 years old and in his first term on the council. He was the youngest member of the council to be elected as its president. Voters re-elected him to office in 2020 with Keith receiving 64% of the vote.
During his time on the city council, he had relentlessly lobbied for north Huntsville – which had long suffered economically as other areas of the Rocket City blossomed. The region is starting to catch up to the rest of the city with dozens of new homes under construction and the revitalization of the former campus of Johnson High School into a mixed-use development.
Keith earned his undergraduate degree and played college football at Samford University in Birmingham and received his master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in Boston.