News Briefs From Across The State
By Monica Land
Two men were fighting over a woman
Clinton police have arrested a possible suspect in connection with the shooting death of a 21-year-old man.
The Clarion-Ledger reports that Mark Nichols’ body was discovered Saturday night on the side of a road in Clinton. Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said Nichols was killed by a single gunshot wound to his head.
Clinton’s interim police chief, Mike Warren, said investigators planned to question Tommy Bass, of Clinton, in connection with the case before determining whether to charge him in the killing.
Bass was wanted on an arrest warrant for a contempt charge and surrendered to police Sunday.
He is being held without bond.
Warren said police believe Nichols and Bass were “in competition for a woman” who told police she hadn’t seen Nichols since early Saturday.
Man sentenced for child molestation
A 42-year-old Greenville man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to performing sexual acts on a minor.
District Attorney W. Dewyane Richardson tells the Delta Democrat Times says Paul Brown pleaded guilty in Washington County Circuit Court last week to three counts of sexual battery and two counts of fondling the girl.
Richardson says Brown was indicted in 2011 for molesting the girl, who was 10 at the time, from 2009 to 2011.
Richardson says Brown had been in a dating relationship with the girl’s mother at the time of the incidents.
Woman loses appeal of conviction in shooting death
The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of an Oktibbeha County woman in the shooting death of her husband.
Verina Childs was convicted of murder in 2011 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Douglas Childs was shot to death in 2009 while he and wife were hunting. They say a bullet recovered from the body matched her rifle.
Verina Childs argued she was a home when the shooting occurred because she had gotten sick while out in the woods. She said she learned of her husband’s death when a neighbor came by.
The Supreme Court found that Verina Childs offered no evidence to support her hunting accident theory and prosecutors proved murder in what was a circumstantial evidence case.
Madison Co. adding deputies to court security
Madison County is increasing security at its Justice Court.
The Clarion-Ledger reports the Board of Supervisors has approved hiring a full-time sheriff’s deputy and a part-time deputy to provide security and monitor a metal detector for entry into the court building in Canton.
Chief Deputy Jeremy Williams says the sheriff’s goal is to have the new personnel hired by June 1.
The annual cost, including salary and benefits, of hiring the two deputies is over $78,000.
Williams says the part-time deputy will work 24 hours per week and serve as relief for the full-time deputy. The part-time employee also will be used to fill in at the Madison County Circuit Court building.
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