BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — A wanted man who has been in hiding under a fake name for three years—even fooling his girlfriend, who never knew his real identity—was finally tracked down and arrested in Inez, authorities said.
Douglas Nickiah Palomino, 31, was wanted in Connecticut for sexual assault-related offenses.
A couple of weeks ago, Martin County Sheriff John Kirk received a tip that Palomino was living under the alias “Jack Torres” in Inez. On Friday, the sheriff narrowed the search, located the suspect, and arrested him at gunpoint.
Kirk and his deputies went to a residence on Doug Johnson Road to perform a welfare check on children living in the household with Palomino. The children were not there when law enforcement arrived, but officers encountered their mother, 33-year-old Crystal Johnson.
“I asked if her boyfriend was there,” Sheriff Kirk said. “She said he wasn’t. I told her that he may be a wanted man and may be giving a false name. I explained to her, ‘If you’re lying to us, you’re putting us in a bad situation and putting him in a bad situation.’ She lied anyway and she went to jail for it.”
Johnson permitted the officers to search inside the home, where they eventually located Palomino hiding inside a closet, holding the door shut.
“We had to bring him out of the closet at gunpoint,” said Kirk. “Anytime someone barricades in a home like that, in a closet, it’s dangerous.”
When the sheriff confronted Palomino about using a false name, he admitted to lying to Johnson for several months and apologized to her.
Johnson apparently met Palomino on the internet and only knew him by his alias.
Palomino was wanted in Connecticut for a probation violation. He was convicted in Nov. 7, 2013 on two counts of second-degree sexual assault of two victims 13-15 years of age. Records in Connecticut state he engaged in sexual intercourse with two teenage females ages 14 and 15. He was released from prison Oct. 9, 2015.
“He’s a registered sex offender and did not register when he moved to Inez,” said Kirk. “Once we found out that he was a registered sex offender, we were even more concerned with him being around the kids.”
Palomino surrendered a small amount of marijuana and a pipe to Kirk and deputies. They arrested him for a fugitive warrant, failure to comply with sex offender registration, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Officers arrested Johnson for second-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension.
Both were transported to the Big Sandy Regional Jail.