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Matthew Hunter Colville first came up on the radar of the Titus County Sheriff’s Office in March of 2022, only a few months after moving onto property located on the 400 block of County Road 1925. Colville, a felon, wasn’t home when deputies conducted a search warrant of his travel trailer. That was when they discovered that Matthew Colville had not only Marihuana but a total of 32 firearms. In that instance, as a felon, Colville was prohibited from possessing a gun under state and federal law.
On Friday, September 15, Colville was a wanted fugitive for numerous felony warrants, including Aggravated Assault on a Peace Officer out of Denton and Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Felon out of Titus County.
That day, Lamar County Sheriff’s Deputies learned Colville had stopped at a store in Pattonville and had Colville’s four-wheel drive flatbed truck boxed in with their vehicles. When the deputies attempted to apprehend Colville, he used his truck to ram into several patrol vehicles, ultimately extricating his truck from the parking lot. Lamar County officers began to pursue Colville south on U.S. 271.
Colville continued flight into Titus County, turning east on F.M. 71, then went to his residence on C.R. 1925. At that point, he exited the truck and got on a side-by-side ATV, fleeing into a mixture of woods and pasture land to the north of his residence. An extensive search of the property by the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies, including the Titus County Sheriff’s Office, failed to locate Colville or the side-by-side that day. During the search for Colville, deputies learned that Colville had a pistol on his person when he fled from Lamar County Deputies.
Titus County Deputies and Investigators then executed a search warrant on the houses and travel trailers located on the property. They discovered that Colville had possessed Marihuana and several more firearms that a court had prohibited him from having. Fortunately, during his immediate flight, Colville didn’t have enough time to make his way into his travel trailer. It was there that, in addition to several firearms, deputies discovered Colville had an unregistered, fully automatic machine gun that was loaded and at the ready.
In addition to Colville being a felon, prohibiting him from possessing any firearm, a fully automatic firearm not legally registered through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) is considered a “Prohibited Weapon” under the Texas Penal Code. The offenses discovered at Colville’s property triggered additional felony arrest warrants for Colville.
As efforts to locate Colville continued, Titus County Sheriff’s Office enlisted the aid of the U.S. Marshal Service in apprehending Colville. They discovered that one or more known persons supported and assisted during his efforts to elude capture. Knowingly providing aid or harboring a person wanted for a felony is also a felony in Texas, and an investigation into offenses committed by the persons who have done so is currently underway.
On Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Apprehension Task Force acted on the information, placing Colville in Holdenville, Oklahoma. It was there that Deputy U.S. Marshals apprehended Colville without any significant incident.
Titus County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the U.S. Marshal’s Service and those from other agencies and the public for their assistance in Colville’s apprehension.
