MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. – A Greenwood man will be sentenced Friday for murdering a man and his girlfriend more than two years ago. Eric Ricardo Middleton, 26, was found guilty of first degree murder in the death of Jackson businessman Bobby Perry, and second degree murder for the death of Perry’s girlfriend, Andreca Manning. Prosecutors said Middleton stabbed the couple to death after he overheard Perry ask his girlfriend to watch him and Manning have sex.
If convicted, Middleton could face life in prison. He will be sentenced in a Tennessee court on Friday, March 5.
In January 2010, Middleton had a trial in Madison County, Tenn., wherein a jury heard testimony from Middleton’s ex-girlfriend, Mary Thompson. Thompson was also the prosecution’s key witness.
During her testimony, Thompson told the jury how Perry and Manning came to her home on East Jackson Street, in Tennessee, and how Perry had asked her to watch them have sex.
“He told me he wanted me to see how it was done,” Thompson reportedly said on the witness stand.
Thompson said Middleton overheard Perry’s request, got angry and started a fight with Perry. Thompson told jurors “Middleton had Perry down with his knees.”
Thompson said Middleton asked her to hand him a kitchen knife, which she “kicked” toward him and “left the room.” She later testified that she found Manning in her bathroom covered in blood from stab wounds.
“It looked like she had holes in her,” Thompson recounted.
Thompson said she helped Middleton clean up the blood in her house, but she denied actually having witnessed the murders.
Thompson said Middleton put the woman’s body in the trunk of Perry’s Cadillac and Perry’s body on the backseat. Thompson then drove the car, with Middleton, to a remote area in Holmes County, Miss., where he dumped the bodies. Court records said Middleton then set Perry’s car on fire in a field in Leflore County, Miss., where it was later found still burning.
Within hours of that discovery, the bodies of Perry and Manning were found by hunters. Both victims had suffered numerous stab wounds to the body and Perry had blunt-force trauma to the head.
Officials said Perry, 53, had three daughters and owned a used car lot and other businesses in Jackson, and Manning, 29, also from Jackson, had two children.
A doctor testified in court that Perry and Manning had high levels of the prescription pain relievers hydrocodone and oxycodone in their blood when they died, which indicated they had built up a tolerance for the drugs. Those drugs were also found at Thompson’s home during the investigation.
Middleton was arrested and charged with the murders and tampering with evidence for burning Perry’s car and other evidence related to the murders at Thompson’s Tennessee home. He was found guilty of both murder charges and he was acquitted for evidence tampering.
Thompson, 27, will be tried separately, and she is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
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