By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A Pensacola, Fla. man who spent nearly three years in the Escambia County Detention Center (ECDC) before being released on bond about a year ago, is back behind familiar bars after several violations of his bond’s provisions.
Antonio Albert Crenshaw, now 42, was re-arrested Tuesday, February 20. Crenshaw has twice been charged with murder but has so far escaped serious punishment.
The most recent crime for which he is charged is the 2020 stabbing and shooting of Atmore resident Desmond Deshun Dirden, who died on a Patterson Street sidewalk before medical help could arrive. Crenshaw was initially held under a $500,000 bond on a series of charges, including reckless murder, but was released from the facility April 3, 2023 after his bond was reduced to $150,000.
According to documents provided by Clerk of Court John R. Fountain, Crenshaw’s return trip to jail came after a Petition to Revoke Bond was filed by District Attorney Steve Billy and signed by Circuit Judge Jeff White.
The petition was issued in response to a report from Community Corrections Director Matt Rabren that summarized data from the GPS ankle bracelet monitor Crenshaw was wearing as a condition of his bond.
The report shows the accused killer violated the terms of the bond by leaving his residence and his job at a local restaurant and staying out until the wee hours three times between January 20 and February 11.
On January 20 he traveled along Carver Avenue, Robinsonville Road, Wind Creek Casino and the Freemanville area until 3:51 am. Crenshaw reportedly told Community Corrections officials he had been delivering food for the restaurant at which he works.
On February 11 he was in and out of work and/or his home until 6:10 a.m. and was tracked at locations along 4th Avenue, Carver Avenue, Northgate Drive and Martin Luther King Drive. This time, he told officials he was helping his mother with a flat tire.
On neither occasion were his late-night activities pre-approved by Community Corrections, according to the report.
Crenshaw has a violent criminal history. He was charged with capital murder in the 2011 shooting death of Christopher Payne Andrews, a former three-sport letterman at Escambia County High School. In 2013 he accepted a plea deal that lowered the charge to manslaughter in exchange for a 20-year split prison sentence. Information on how much time he actually served could not be found through an extensive online search.