Damon Dickey’s mother speaks out after arrest

POCAHONTAS, Ark. (KAIT) - Dinesa Poe can rest a little easier after police arrested her son on Oct. 27 in Greene County.

Poe said she had not spoken to her son in nearly a month.

During that time, police said a Paragould woman shot him when he tried to rob her.

Poe explained that she couldn’t believe her ears when she learned what had happened.

“When I did hear about him, it was a phone call stating he had been in an aggravated assault and had been shot twice and was being airlifted to Memphis.”

Once her son had been stabilized and put in a hospital room, she was allowed to see him.

Things were fine until someone called the hospital phone asking for him.

“He received a phone call in his hospital room. He was completely out of it until he heard me repeat the person’s name. Then he woke up demanding the phone. He spoke with that person for a brief time, handed me the phone because they asked if they could come visit him, and I told them no, then hung up the phone.”

Following the call, hospital staff removed Poe for upsetting her son when she hung up the phone.

When she called on Oct. 21 to check on him, hospital staff said he could not be discharged due to his condition.

Then on Oct. 22, when she called, staff told her that her son had left the hospital and neither Poe nor the police knew where he went.

Poe filed a missing persons report with Randolph County Sheriff Kevin Bell.

Police searched for Damon for days.

On Thursday evening, Dinesa said she received a call.

“I got several phone calls. One was from Kevin, stating they had him. There was a high-speed chase, but he was safe. Medically safe and sound. He wanted me to be aware of it before it hit the news that Damon had been apprehended.”

Poe stressed that she knows her son did wrong but believes some factors led to him getting in trouble.

“I’m sure my son is not the only one that is being manipulated—or used. I know Damon knows the difference in right and wrong, but I also know the situation that he had himself in. The only thing he felt like he could do is comply.”

She said that had it not have been for the hard work of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, she believes her son might never have been found.

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