News Briefs From Across The State
By Monica Land
Man was reported missing last week
Meridian police said they have identified the body of a black man found in Clay County Wednesday as a man reported missing in their city last month.
Public Information Officer Mike Vick told WTVA the man is 28-year-old Alex Sims.
Clay County authorities said Sims was found floating in Catalpa Creek in the Tibbee Community in July.
The only significant identifying factors on the body were three tattoos.
Vick said the cause of Sims’ death is undetermined and is being handled by authorities in Clay County.
Man pleads guilty to manslaughter
A Lee County man is serving 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the death of a man whose body was found near Blue Mountain.
Christopher Clippard, 35, of Shannon entered guilty pleas to manslaughter and grand larceny in the death of David Lee Floyd, 58, of Shannon.
Floyd's body was found by hunters in the Hell Creek Wildlife Management area near Blue Mountain in November of 2010.
Clippard and Maybelle White of Shannon were later arrested and charged with capital murder in Floyd's death.
Investigators say surveillance camera video taken in Memphis show the couple using Floyd's debit card.
White is still awaiting trial in the case.
Sheriff's investigators treating fatal shooting as a homicide
Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson says the shooting death of a man in Eggville is being treated as a homicide.
Law enforcement officers were called to a home on County Road 1543 around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
They discovered a body on the ground outside the home.
According to the sheriff, 37-year-old Dale Parker had been shot multiple times.
No arrests have been made yet, but Johnson adds that several people are being questioned in connection with the shooting death.
Man sentenced to 25 years for DUI fatality
A 43-year-old Starkville man charged with leaving the scene of a May 2011 accident in which an 11-year-old boy was killed and three others injured has been sentenced in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court.
The Commercial Dispatch reports Curtis Chandler pleaded guilty last week to two counts of aggravated DUI. He was sentenced to serve 25 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine.
In addition to the 11-year-old boy who was killed, a 12-year-old girl and 39-year-old woman were injured, as well as another 15-year-old occupant.
