PORT ANGELES — An Alabama fugitive who was caught at the Port Angeles Walmart on Oct. 1 pleaded not guilty to first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a stolen vehicle Friday.
Dylan Keith Carroll, 24, faces a Nov. 28 trial in Clallam County Superior Court.
Carroll was charged Oct. 5 with being a fugitive from justice in Alabama.
The convicted arsonist allegedly escaped from a minimum-security prison in Deatsville, Ala., on Sept. 23 and drove a stolen pickup some 2,800 miles to the North Olympic Peninsula, according to the affidavit for probable cause.
He is being held in the Clallam County jail on $100,000 bail.
A status hearing for both cases is scheduled for Oct. 27.
Carroll was convicted in Alabama of second-degree arson for setting fire to a Tallassee hotel in 2009, court papers said.
He was serving the first year of a 13-year sentence when he walked out of the Frank Lee Work Release Center, authorities said.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office received a tip that Carroll was at a coffee shop in Forks on the morning of Oct. 1. He had left before deputies arrived.
Investigators said Carroll had given a stolen Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun to his grandmother before he left Forks in a stolen 2016 Chevrolet pickup.
A description of the vehicle was relayed to local, state and federal authorities.
The wife of an Olympic National Park ranger reported seeing the pickup just east of Port Angeles at about noon Oct. 1.
Sheriff’s deputies found Carroll inside the pickup at the Walmart parking lot.
Carroll did not waive extradition and did not consent to return to Alabama, court documents said.
_________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
