News Briefs From Across The State
By Monica Land
Authorities say hunters may be to blame
Panola County authorities said a bullet that struck a Panola County school bus, grazing a student in the back, may have been a hunting accident.
District Attorney John Champion said a 10-year-old male student was transported by helicopter on Jan. 25 to Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis with non-life-threatening injuries.
Champion said the bullet went through a side window of the South Panola bus, which was carrying about 15 students when the incident occurred. Surveillance video onboard the bus captured the incident.
Investigators believe the shooter could have been a hunter because the bullet came from a rifle. One person has been questioned and is reportedly being cooperative with authorities.
Gulfport man gets prison time for gun violations
Authorities said a member of the Latin Kings street gang has been sentenced to 41 months in prison and fined $4,000 for lying on applications to buy guns.
The Sun Herald reports 24-year-old John Buster Jones was sentenced on a guilty plea following a three-year federal probe that targeted gun trafficking and illegal sales to members of the Simon City Royals street gang.
As part of Jones’ plea to one of three counts, he agreed to forfeit a Roman Cugir WASR semi-automatic rifle and a Glock .40-caliber pistol.
An indictment unsealed in May charged Jones with sale of a firearm to a felon and two counts of making false statements in the purchase of firearms. He faced up to 30 years in prison on all three counts.
Brothers get probation for lying to grand jury
Two brothers have been sentenced to probation for obstructing justice by lying to a federal grand jury in Gulfport about weapons at a third brother’s home in Harrison County.
Michael Lee received four years’ probation and Isaac Lee received three years’ probation when they were sentenced in Hattiesburg.
Their brother, Clarence Lee II, pleaded guilty to a firearms violation and is being held for sentencing pending a mental evaluation.
The federal case came after Clarence Lee was being held for trial on a cocaine conspiracy and notified someone in November 2011 to alert his brothers about guns in his Harrison County home.
Michael Lee and Isaac Lee admitted they lied to a federal grand jury about having no knowledge of the guns.
Greenville officer pleads guilty in federal case
Greenville police officer Cedric Sorrell pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of withholding information on a crime.
The Delta Democrat Times reports that prosecutors dropped other counts in exchange for the plea in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen.
Sorrell and Officers Bryant Kennedy and Samuel McVay were indicted on civil rights charges.
Prosecutors said the officers, on May 3, 2012, allegedly knocked to the ground and injured a man and removed about $1,300 removed from his wallet.
Kennedy pleaded guilty to conspiracy in January.
McVay is scheduled for trial on Feb. 11 in federal court in Oxford. No sentencing dates have been set for Sorrell and Kennedy.
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