News Briefs From Across The State
By Monica Land
Victim Willie Hood Jr. shot and killed Saturday night
Columbus police said a man wanted in the shooting death of a 29-year-old man has turned himself in.
WTVA reported that 19-year-old Derrick D. Nelson, of Columbus, surrendered to Police Chief Selvain McQueen around 8 p.m. Saturday, May 25.
Police say Nelson faces a murder charge in the shooting death of Willie Hood Jr. early Saturday morning. The shooting happened at Nelson’s home in the 700 block of Pine Street.
Nelson was seen leaving the scene of the crime in a white Dodge Charger with an Alabama license plate. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
Nelson is being held in the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center pending an initial appearance in court.
Woman charged with failing to report to prison
A woman convicted of being involved in the forgery of a bankruptcy judge’s signature has now been charged with failing to report to prison.
The indictment in the forgery case says Helen Page “did knowingly concur in using the forged signature of Edward Ellington,” federal bankruptcy judge in southern Mississippi in December 2006.
Court records say she used the forged document in an attempt to convince a clinic where she applied for a job that restrictions had been lifted on her nursing license.
Page was convicted July 19 and was sentenced earlier this year.
The new charge says she failed to report to prison on April 29 to serve her nearly 3-year sentence.
Man wants pay for snakes seized in porn case
A man serving 30 years for allegedly enticing a teenager to pose for pornographic pictures with venomous snakes has filed a federal lawsuit seeking compensation for the loss of his reptiles.
John Joseph Maillet’s lawsuit says his snakes were worth more than $12,000 and that he didn’t have the chance to object to their forfeiture because he wasn’t properly notified of court filings.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, the same place Maillet was sentenced on the enticement conviction in January 2011.
Maillet, of Port Jervis, N.Y., was living in Carriere, Miss., when he allegedly enticed a 15-year-old girl to pose with the snakes in 2007.
Mallet’s lawsuit also says the number of snakes listed in government filings mysteriously changed from 41 to 12.
Man pleads guilty in poultry exports case
One of three men accused of falsifying temperatures of poultry exported to Russia from Pascagoula has pleaded guilty in federal court in Gulfport.
The Sun Herald reports that 38-year-old Terry White pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States. Four other counts were dropped in a plea agreement.
White will be sentenced Aug. 19. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to court records, White was a warehouse supervisor for Gulf Coast Cold Storage in 2009 when he conspired to violate a trade agreement with Russia by authorizing the export of poultry at lower temperatures than required.
The business is a tenant at the Port of Pascagoula. Two other men stand trial June 3.
Be the first to comment