DECATUR (AL)
WHNT-TV, Ch. 19 [Huntsville AL]
October 21, 2024
By Rebecca Teutsch
A former Decatur pastor charged with sex crimes is set to go on trial this week after his trial was previously continued four times.
Danny Duane Pitts is charged with two counts of sodomy and pleaded not guilty in 2022. Court documents show Pitts’s trial was set to begin on Monday, October 21.
On October 18, documents were filed by the state showing their intent to use “404b evidence” at the trial. 404b evidence is used to introduce new evidence at trial to establish a motive, plan and intent.
The notice of intent to use the 404b says that the state would like to introduce “evidence and testimony relating to acts of sodomy and sexual abuse committed by [Pitts] against an additional victim who was of a similar age at the time of the abuse as the named victim in the case.”
Documents show other evidence the state wants to use includes a “recording wherein [Pitts] discussed said sodomy and sexual abuse against the additional victim.”
In November 2021, 59-year-old Pitts was indicted and charged with one count of first-degree sodomy and one count of second-degree sodomy. The former church leader pleaded not guilty in March 2022 ahead of a jury trial that was originally slated for November 28, 2022.
His trial has been continued four times since then.
According to Lt. Alan McDearmond, Hartselle Police executed a warrant issued by the Morgan County Grand Jury against Pitts, arresting him at his Hartselle home in November 2021 without incident.
Prior to his arrest, News 19 reported that a pastor had been accused of acting inappropriately toward kids at the GracePoint Church in Decatur as rumors were circulating on social media. Several people claimed to have been groomed and abused by a pastor at the church.
When Pitts was released from Morgan County custody, the conditions of his release stated that he had to wear an ankle monitor, could not leave the state and had to turn over his passport.
According to authorities in Grundy County, Tennessee, Pitts faces four more sex-related charges in that state, including statutory rape, two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and statutory rape by an authority figure.