Husband charged with murder of wife, 2nd person at New Albany gas station

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WISH) — A Floyd County judge on Friday formally charged a 37-year-old man with killing his wife and another person on Monday at a gas station, Indiana State Police said Thursday.

Cherok Douglass, 37, of New Albany is charged with killing his wife, Brandee Douglass, 38, and Lorin Yelle, 43, of Louisville, Kentucky. Yelle did not know the Douglasses; he was a customer at the gas station, police said.

Cherok Douglass also was formally charged Friday with counts of attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery.

After the shooting about 10 a.m. Monday at the gas station, Cherok Douglass drove off and police pursued him to a parking lot at a nearby restaurant, police said. Douglass went into the restaurant, where police say he took a woman hostage at gunpoint and forced her into a sport utility vehicle in the restaurant’s back parking lot. Indiana State Police have not identified the woman.

As police surrounded the SUV, the hostage fell out of the vehicle. Cherok Douglass then tried to run over officers, police said, causing them to fire at him. Cherok Douglass was arrested after the SUV crashed into the restaurant. He and the woman he’d held hostage were taken to a hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Cherok Douglass was extradited from Kentucky on Wednesday, Indiana State Police said Thursday.

The judge in the case in Floyd Superior Court 1 refused to set bond. Cherok Douglass remained in the Floyd County jail.