A 39-year-old Atmore man has been charged with the murder of a driver who fatally struck and killed a woman outside an Atmore bar in early August.

Atmore police Sgt. Darrell McMann said Kendall Madison was taken into custody early Friday morning, roughly seven weeks after investigators say he slammed Kenneth Harrison’s head into the pavement with such force as to cause fatal injuries.

Harrison was airlifted to a Mobile trauma center, where he died four days later.

The assault on the 45-year-old Harrison came in the wake of a fatal vehicular accident, when Harrison’s Chevrolet Tahoe struck 24-year-old Hannah Martin as she walked across Highway 31 in Atmore to The Tavern sports bar. The impact knocked Martin into the parking lot of the bar and Harrison pulled his vehicle in behind. Martin would be transported to a local hospital, where she died of her injuries.

McMann said when Atmore officers first arrived at The Tavern the night of the accident, officers found Harrison lying face down in the bar parking lot. When they rolled him over, his face was so severely disfigured the officers believed he had been assaulted by multiple people.

Investigators interviewed multiple witnesses, McMann said, and reviewed surveillance footage which included audio recordings, which he said “became valuable” during the investigation. The assault on Harrison, however, occurred out of the field of view of the surveillance cameras and while attention was focused on Martin.

As the investigation continued, it was determined Harrison’s injuries occurred as the result of being forcefully driven into the pavement and a person of interest emerged. McMann emphasized Harrison had not been assaulted with a weapon nor was he attacked by more than one person.

Investigators, however, continued to search for additional witnesses as they awaited the execution of search warrants. The lead investigator also consulted with the Escambia County District Attorney’s Office prior to making the arrest.

Madison was taken into custody at 5:40 a.m. Friday during a traffic stop. He was taken to the Atmore Police Department and charged with murder before being transported to the Escambia County Detention Center.

The circumstances of the crash which resulted in the death of Martin were investigated by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Results of that investigation, including the toxicology report on Harrison, were not immediately available.

Court and jail records show Harrison had a criminal history that included a guilty plea in Baldwin County Circuit Court to a reduced charge of manslaughter after he was accused of the murder of a 54-year-old Elberta man.

In 2011, six years after Sanford “Sandy” Lee Ledbetter disappeared from the Magnolia Springs area and a year after his remains were positively identified, Harrison admitted to beating Ledbetter to death.

Harrison was sentenced to 15 years in state prison, with one year credit for time served awaiting trial. That sentence was to run concurrent to a 10-year sentence previously imposed for a theft conviction.

But Harrison was released in February 2016 after serving the minimum of five years. Had he served his full sentence, he would have remained in prison until October 2025, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.