Case Review Series: Brittney Wood
Part 6: The Arrests
Published 7/15/26
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
Content Warning: This article discusses a missing person case, child sexual abuse allegations, criminal charges involving minors, and suicide. The material is presented in a fact-based, non-graphic manner, but some details may be difficult for readers.
By the end of June 1, 2012, Donnie Holland could no longer answer investigators. He couldn’t explain his communications with Brittney. He couldn’t say where she was supposed to be going on May 30, whether he saw her, or whether she left with him and went somewhere else later. He couldn’t account for the phone activity that continued after she disappeared. And he couldn’t sit across from Baldwin County investigators and respond to the allegations they’d been preparing to confront him with that afternoon.
But Donnie’s death didn’t end the case. It changed the direction of it.
In the days after he was found on River Road, the search for Brittney continued in a way the community could see. A missing person report had been filed with Mobile Police Department on June 2. Volunteers searched. Family members spoke to reports. Search teams focused on areas in Baldwin County after information circulated that Brittney’s last cell phone activity had placed her in or near the Styx River area.
Behind that search, other cases were already moving through law enforcement.
The arrests that followed stemmed from a more than three-month investigation in Baldwin and Mobile Counties, with additional alleged victims later coming forward. Between 2012 and 2013, eight of Brittney’s relatives and three family friends were arrested on sex abuse charges in Mobile and Baldwin Counties.
The firsts arrests came on June 19, 2012. Less than three weeks after Brittney was last seen, Baldwin County authorities arrested Randall Scott Wood and Dustin Kent.
Dustin Alton Kent
Dustin Alton Kent was married to Mendy Wood Kent, making him Brittney’s uncle by marriage. He was one of the first people arrested after Brittney disappeared.
Kent’s name may not be immediately recognizable to people outside the case, but his family connection reaches beyond the Wood and Holland families. Kent was the brother of Dee McCarron, the mother of former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron. His criminal cases stand on their own within the record.
Years later, when Kent’s father, David Kent, died in 2022, his Last Will and Testament was recorded. In that will, David Kent identified his two children and included an explicit statement disinheriting Dustin: “I have in this Will intentionally disinherited and devised nothing to my son, Dustin Alton Kent, for reasons known to him.”
The will doesn’t explain those reasons. It reflects that, even years after the arrests, Kent’s place inside his own family was marked by a rupture formal enough to appear in a recorded estate document.
Kent’s name didn’t first enter the record after Brittney disappeared. On May 27, 2012, three days before Brittney was last seen, DH identified Dustin in messages to Brittney as someone she said had sexually abused her. Those messages place his name inside the communications Brittney was receiving shortly before she vanished, before the first public arrests in the child sex abuse investigation.
Kent’s first Baldwin County arrest came on June 19, 2012, the same day Randall Scott Wood was arrested. At that stage, Kent was charged in Baldwin County with first-degree sodomy and second-degree rape.
His name appeared repeatedly as the investigation widened.
On July 16, 2012, Kent was arrested again in Baldwin County on additional allegations involving another family member. Those charges were reported as second-degree rape, incest, and second-degree sodomy.
The Baldwin County court filings provide a clearer picture of how those early arrests became formal criminal cases.
In one Baldwin County case from the June arrest, Kent was indicted for incest and second-degree rape involving an alleged minor victim identified by initials in the court record. In a second Baldwin County case from the same arrest, Kent was indicted for second-degree sodomy involving the same alleged minor victim. Both indictments were returned in November 2012.
Bond orders in those cases placed Kent under strict conditions, including no contact with the victims or their families, no unsupervised contact with any child under 18, house arrest, and electronic monitoring.
Kent was later adjudicated guilty in Baldwin County of second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy. Sentencing orders entered in October 2015 sentenced him to 17 years in each case, to run concurrently with each other and with referenced Mobile County cases. The court also ordered him to avoid contact with the two alleged victims identified by initials in the sentencing orders.
Kent’s July 16, 2012 Baldwin County arrest led to a separate group of indictments involving another alleged minor victim identified by initials in the court records. In one case, Kent was indicted for first-degree rape and second-degree rape. In another, he was indicted for first-degree sodomy and second-degree sodomy. In a third, he was indicted for incest.
Those three July cases in Baldwin County were later nolle prossed on July 31, 2014, upon the State’s oral recommendation.
Kent was also charged in Mobile County.
The Mobile County case action summaries reflect two separate waves of Mobile cases: one tied to an August 2, 2012 arrest and another tied to an October 22, 2013 arrest.
In the August 2012 Mobile cases, Kent was charged with second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy. The second-degree rape case was later nolle prossed. The second-degree sodomy case resulted in a guilty plea on August 7, 2014. Kent was sentenced in November 2015 to 17 years in that case, to run concurrently with another Mobile County case and with the Baldwin County cases.
The October 2013 Mobile cases included charges of first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, production of obscene matter involving minors, and sexual abuse of a child under 12. Several of those Mobile County cases were later nolle prossed.
One of the October 2013 Mobile cases was filed as first-degree rape but was disposed by guilty plea to second-degree rape on August 7, 2014. Kent was sentenced in November 2015 to 17 years in that case as well. The Mobile case action summary reflects that sentence as concurrent with his other Mobile conviction and with the Baldwin County cases.
Kent’s case records span multiple arrest dates, multiple alleged victims, and proceedings in both Baldwin and Mobile counties. Some charges were nolle prossed. Others resulted in guilty pleas and prison sentences.
Randall Scott Wood
Randall Scott Wood, known as Sctt, was Brittney’s uncle. He was also one of the first people arrested after Brittney disappeared.
Scott’s name had already appeared in the early narrative because he was connected to the initial reporting of abuse allegations that brought Baldwin County investigators into the family’s orbit months before Brittney vanished. In early coverage, his role appeared relatively straightforward. Records reviewed since then suggest the initial reporting didn’t unfold exactly the way it was later presented. We’ll address that more fully in the next installment.
Scott was arrested in Baldwin County on June 19, 2012, the same day Kent was arrested. The initial Baldwin County charges were second-degree sexual abuse, second-degree sodomy, and incest.
Court records later separated those allegations into two Baldwin County circuit cases.
In one case, Scott was indicted for second-degree sodomy involving a juvenile victim identified by initials in the court record. The indictment alleged conduct occurring before the indictment was returned in November 2012.
In a companion Baldwin County case, Scott was indicted for incest and second-degree sexual abuse involving the same juvenile victim identified by initials. That indictment was also returned in November 2012.
The bond orders entered in the Baldwin County cases placed Scott under strict conditions while the cases were pending. He was ordered to have no contact with the victim or the victim’s family, not to be within one mile of the victim’s residence, and not to have contact with any child under the age of 18. He was also placed on house arrest and electronic monitoring, with limited exceptions for work, church, medical emergencies, attorney visits, and court appearances.
Those were pretrial restrictions, not findings of guilt.
The two Baldwin County cases ended differently. The incest and second-degree sexual abuse case was nolle prossed on August 11, 2014, upon the State’s oral recommendation. The second-degree sodomy case resulted in a conviction. In February 2015, Scott pleaded guilty to second-degree sodomy in Baldwin County. He was sentenced to 15 years, split to serve 4 years in the Department of Corrections, followed by 5 years of probation.
A split sentence means the defendant receives a longer sentence but serves only a portion of it in custody before being released to probation. If the offender violates probation, the court may have authority to revoke probation and require the offender to serve more of the original sentence.
Scott later faced charges in Mobile County as well.
The Mobile County case action summaries reflect an October 22, 2013 arrest and March 21, 2014 indictments. The Mobile charges included second-degree rape, second-degree sodomy, and enticing a child to enter.
The Mobile County second-degree rape and enticing-a-child cases were nolle prossed on November 19, 2015. The Mobile County second-degree sodomy case resulted in a guilty plea that same day. The case action summary reflects a 15-year sentence, split to serve 3 years, with 12 years suspended and 5 years of probation. The Mobile sentence was ordered to run concurrent with Scott’s Baldwin County cases.
Across Baldwin and Mobile counties, the original charges narrowed through the court process. In Baldwin County, the incest and sexual abuse charges were dismissed, while the second-degree sodomy case resulted in a conviction and split sentence. In Mobile County, the rape and enticing charges were dismissed, while the second-degree sodomy case resulted in a guilty plea and another split sentence.
Derek Thomas Wood
Derek Wood, Brittney’s older brother, was arrested in Baldwin County on July 13, 2012, less than a month after Dustin Kent and Scott Wood. Derek was 21 years old at the time of his arrest and was charged with second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy.
The arrest stood apart from the earlier arrests because Derek was not a distant relative or someone on the edge of Brittney’s life. He was her brother. He had been described publicly as protective of her, and he had been visible in the concern surrounding her disappearance.
In the first episode of Monster in the Shadows, a recorded correctional-facility call with Derek includes his own account of the circumstances surrounding the allegations against him. Derek said he remembered being asked to drink before “the whole thing went down,” and described what he believed was a combination of intoxication, bribery, manipulation, and intimidation. He also said “they” only received one side of the story and made him “look like a straight monster.”
The correctional-facility call doesn’t appear in Derek’s public court file, and the sealed case record limits what can be confirmed from court documents. It provides Derek’s own explanation of circumstances he believed surrounded the allegations.
The legal record around Derek’s case is limited. Derek was granted Youthful Offender status, which means the case details aren’t available for public review in Alacourt in the same way adult criminal records would be. He accepted a plea agreement, but the details and terms were sealed under his Youthful Offender status.
That leaves a narrow public record: the date of arrest, the reported charges, the fact that Youthful Offender status was granted, and the fact that a plea agreement was accepted.
By mid-July 2012, Brittney was missing, Donnie was dead, two of her uncles had already been arrested, and now her own brother had been charged in the sex abuse investigation. The cases were legally separate from the missing person case, but they were unfolding inside the same family and within weeks of Brittney’s disappearance.
Derek’s name surfaced again later that fall, when he reportedly ran from police and removed or ditched his required ankle monitor after his bond was revoked. He turned himself in on October 18, 2012. The following month, search efforts for Brittney continued in the Tillmans Corner area after Derek had fled from law enforcement there.
Donald P. Holland, Jr.
Donald “Paul” Holland Jr. was Donnie’s son and Brittney’s step-cousin. He was arrested in Baldwin County on July 17, 2012, four days after Derek and one day after Dustin was arrested again on additional Baldwin County charges. Paul was charged with second-degree sexual abuse, second-degree rape, and incest.
Paul was Donnie Holland’s son. Donnie had been one of the last people connected to Brittney before she vanished, and he died before investigators could question him about the allegations they intended to confront him with on June 1.
Like Derek, Paul was granted Youthful Offender status. He accepted a plea agreement, but the details and terms of that agreement were sealed under his Youthful Offender status.
The available reports identify the arrest date, charges, Youthful Offender status, and the existence of a plea agreement.
Paul’s arrest came during a rapid stretch of charges in July 2012. By then, Dustin, Scott, and Derek had also been arrested in Baldwin County. Law enforcement publicly stated that the victims connected to those arrests were between 12 and 16 years old, and officials continued to say the arrests did not appear to be related to Brittney’s disappearance.
William “Billy” Brownlee
William “Billy” Brownlee was described in contemporaneous reporting as a close family friend of Donnie and Wendy Holland. He was not a blood relative of Brittney.
Brownlee was arrested in Baldwin County in July 2012, after the arrests of Dustin Kent, Randall “Scott” Wood, Derek Wood, and Donald “Paul” Holland Jr. His reported charges were second-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse.
The later Baldwin County court record reflects one circuit court case: State of Alabama v. William Bonney Brownlee, CC-2012-002052. The case action summary lists charges of second-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse. The case was filed after a November 2012 indictment, and the circuit record lists a December 2012 arrest date on that case.
Brownlee’s Baldwin County case went to trial.
A jury found him guilty of second-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse. In January 2015, the court sentenced Brownlee to 20 years on the second-degree sodomy conviction and 1 year on the second-degree sexual abuse conviction.
Both sentencing orders marked the sentences as straight sentences. Unlike a split sentence, where part of the sentence is served in custody and part is suspended with probation, a straight sentence is imposed without that split structure. Brownlee’s 1-year sentence was ordered to run concurrent with the 20-year sentence.
The sentencing orders also directed Brownlee to avoid initiating contact with all victims.
Brownlee appealed the Baldwin County convictions.
Note on the appellate opinion: The appellate opinion attached to this article contains detailed descriptions of trial testimony involving allegations of child sexual abuse. Those details are part of the public court record, but they are graphic and may be difficult to read. In this article, we summarize the procedural outcome of the appeal without repeating the detailed testimony. Readers who choose to review the opinion directly should do so with that content warning in mind.
In October 2015, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the judgment. The opinion identifies the victim by initials and describes Brownlee as a friend of the victim’s father. It also notes that Brownlee was interviewed by Baldwin County investigators on July 22, 2012, and later by Mobile police on August 31, 2012.
Brownlee was convicted by a Baldwin County jury, sentenced to 20 years on the primary conviction, and the conviction was affirmed on appeal.
Brownlee also faced charges in Mobile County.
The Mobile County case action summaries reflect another group of cases tied to an October 22, 2013 arrest, with indictments returned in March 2014. The Mobile cases included charges of first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, sexual abuse of a child under 12, and second-degree sodomy. A separate Mobile indictment charged Brownlee with second-degree rape involving a female under 16 but older than 12.
One Mobile County first-degree rape case ended in a guilty plea on December 17, 2015. The case action summary reflects a 20-year sentence in that case, with jail credit and sex offender registration requirements. The sentence was ordered to run concurrent with another Mobile County case and with the Baldwin County case.
Several other Mobile County cases were nolle prossed on December 17, 2015, meaning those charges were dismissed on the State’s motion. The dismissed Mobile charges included first-degree sodomy, another first-degree rape charge, sexual abuse of a child under 12, and second-degree sodomy.
Brownlee’s records place a family friend inside the same group of Baldwin and Mobile County sex-offense proceedings that followed Brittney’s disappearance.
James Morgan Cumbaa
James Morgan Cumbaa entered the public court record in the October 2013 wave of Mobile County cases.
The records are somewhat uneven on his name. The Mobile County case action summaries were originally styled under James Adam Cumbaa and listed James Morgan Cumbaa as an alias. Later entries corrected the record to show his legal name as James Morgan Cumbaa.
Cumbaa was arrested on October 22, 2013.
The complaints filed that day alleged conduct between May 1, 2010, and December 31, 2011, involving a child under the age of 12. The charges listed in those complaints included first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, and sexual abuse of a child under 12.
By the time the cases reached Mobile County Circuit Court, the records reflected three separate criminal cases.
In one case, Cumbaa was charged with first-degree sodomy and second-degree sodomy. The case action summary lists an October 22, 2013 arrest date and a March 21, 2014 indictment. Both charges were nolle prossed on April 17, 2017, upon the State’s motion.
In a second case, Cumbaa was charged with first-degree rape and second-degree rape. That case also lists an October 22, 2013 arrest date and a March 21, 2014 indictment. Both charges were nolle prossed on April 17, 2017.
The third case was filed as sexual abuse of a child under 12. That case resolved differently.
On April 17, 2017, the indictment was amended to second-degree assault. Cumbaa pleaded guilty to the amended charge. The case action summary reflects a split sentence with total confinement listed at 9 years, 11 months, and 30 days. Two days were imposed, with two days of jail credit. The remaining 9 years, 11 months, and 28 days were suspended, and Cumbaa was placed on formal state probation for 3 years.
The same case action summary reflects that Cumbaa was removed from electronic monitoring on April 17, 2017.
Cumbaa’s cases followed the same general path as several others in the October 2013 Mobile County group: arrest in October 2013, indictment in March 2014, years of pending proceedings, and final dispositions entered in 2017.
Two of his cases were dismissed on the State’s motion.
One case ended with a guilty plea to an amended second-degree assault charge.
Nelton “Butch” Morgan
Nelton Lloyd Morgan Jr., also referred to in records as Nelton Lloyd Morgan, appears in both Mobile County and Baldwin County court filings.
A Baldwin County capias warrant data worksheet lists his alias or nickname as “Butch.”
Morgan’s Mobile County records list an arrest date of November 1, 2013. The cases were filed in Mobile County Circuit Court in March 2014, with indictments returned that same month.
The Mobile County records reflect two circuit court cases.
In one Mobile County case, Morgan was charged with first-degree rape. The case action summary lists an offense date of August 18, 2006, an arrest date of November 1, 2013, and an indictment date of March 21, 2014. That charge was nolle prossed on March 28, 2016, upon the State’s motion.
In a second Mobile County case, Morgan was charged with sexual abuse of a child under 12. That case also lists an offense date of August 18, 2006, an arrest date of November 1, 2013, and a March 21, 2014 indictment.
The second Mobile County case resolved by guilty plea on March 28, 2016. The filing charge was sexual abuse of a child under 12, but the disposition charge was attempted sexual abuse of a child under 12.
The case action summary reflects a 10-year sentence, split to serve 2 years, with 8 years suspended and 5 years of probation. The record also reflects jail credit of 2 years, 5 months, and 13 days, and states that Morgan was ordered to register as a sex offender.
Morgan also had a Baldwin County case.
The Baldwin County case action summary lists an indictment date of February 6, 2015, and an arrest date of March 24, 2016. The indictment charged Morgan with sexual abuse of a child under 12, first-degree sodomy, and first-degree rape. The alleged victim was identified by initials in the indictment.
The capias warrant data worksheet in the Baldwin case listed the case agent as Donnie Payne with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.
The Baldwin County bond order set bail at $250,000. The listed bond conditions included no contact with the alleged victim or the alleged victim’s family, no contact with children under 18, staying at least one mile away from the alleged victim’s residence, house arrest, and GPS monitoring.
Morgan pleaded guilty in Baldwin County on March 30, 2016, two days after the Mobile County dispositions. The Baldwin sentencing order reflects a conviction for attempted sexual abuse of a child under 12. The first-degree sodomy and first-degree rape counts were nolle prossed.
The Baldwin sentencing order imposed a 10-year sentence, split to time served in county jail, followed by 5 years of probation. The sentence was ordered to run concurrent with Morgan’s Mobile County case.
The Baldwin sentencing order also required Morgan to avoid initiating contact with D.H., comply with SORNA, testify truthfully against any co-defendants if called to do so, and forfeit seized property. The probation order repeated the no-contact condition and the requirement that he testify truthfully against any co-defendants if called.
An order of release from jail was entered that same day, citing the guilty plea as the reason for release.
Morgan’s records add another man to the same group of Mobile and Baldwin County proceedings tied to the broader sex abuse investigation. His cases included charges in both counties, alleged conduct involving a child under 12, and final dispositions entered within two days of each other in March 2016.
In Mobile County, one case was dismissed and one resolved by guilty plea to attempted sexual abuse of a child under 12.
In Baldwin County, two counts were dismissed and one resolved by guilty plea to attempted sexual abuse of a child under 12.
The men’s cases did not move through the courts in one uniform way.
Some charges were dismissed on the State’s motion. Some cases ended in guilty pleas. Some records were sealed under Youthful Offender status. Brownlee’s Baldwin County case went to trial and resulted in jury convictions. Others resolved years later through amended charges, split sentences, probation, or time-served dispositions.
The records also did not stay within one courthouse. They moved through Baldwin County and Mobile County, across separate indictments, separate alleged victims, and separate case numbers. Some defendants were relatives. Others were family friends or people connected through the same social circle.
What those records provide is not a single answer.
They provide a documented view of the criminal investigation that was unfolding around Brittney Wood’s disappearance — an investigation that began before she vanished, continued after Donnie Holland could no longer be questioned, and eventually reached far beyond the first names made public in June 2012.
By the time the men’s cases reached their final dispositions, Brittney had been missing for years.
The next installment will turn to the women charged in the same broader investigation: Wendy Holland, Chessie Wood, Mendy Kent, and Jennifer Moore. Their cases add another layer to the public record, including people even closer to Brittney, Donnie, and the unanswered questions left behind after June 1, 2012.
If you have any information related to the disappearance of Brittney Wood, please contact Mobile Police Department at 251-208-1700 or submit an anonymous tip.
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