2013 – Page 63 – The Mississippi Link

Jackson State hires Brent to lead program

Jackson State has hired Wayne Brent to be its men’s basketball coach.

The 45-year-old Brent is an accomplished high school coach, winning four state championships in six seasons with Callaway High School in Jackson. He was also an assistant coach at Mississippi for four seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s, helping the Rebels advance to the NCAA tournament three times.

Brent was introduced on March 25, and will have a strong nucleus to work with next season, including guards Dundrecous Nelson (Ole Miss) and Julysses Nobles (Arkansas), who will both be eligible after transferring from the Southeastern Conference. He’ll also have several returning players from last year’s team that finished with an 11-18 record. […]

Corinth Marine among those killed in murder-suicide at Quantico

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Funeral services are scheduled for 1 p.m. today for a Mississippi native and Marine corporal gunned down during a murder-suicide at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia.

On Thursday, March 21, Cpl. Jacob Lee Wooley, 23, of Corinth, was pronounced dead at the scene after a shooting incident at Taylor Hall during Officer Candidates School (OCS) in Triangle, Virginia.

Wooley and 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata, of Oakley, Calif., were shot to death by fellow Marine and tactics instructor, 25-year-old Sgt. Eusebio Lopez. Lopez then shot himself. Officials at Quantico said all three Marines had been assigned to OCS and all three were pronounced at the scene. […]

Pastor indicted for sexual battery of child

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A 71-year-old Mississippi pastor has been indicted by a Tate County grand jury on 18 felony counts related to the sexual battery of a child.

Sheriff Brad Lance says in a news release that Larry Gene Singleton was on two counts of fondling, six counts of sexual battery and 10 counts of child pornography.

Singleton, the former pastor of Bay Springs Baptist Church in Abbeville, Miss., was arrested in December after sheriff’s investigators received a complaint from the victim, who accused Singleton of forcing him to have sex. […]

Ole Miss hires Kentucky women's assistant Insell

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Matt Insell, who has spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach with the nationally-ranked University of Kentucky women’s basketball program, has been named head coach of the Ole Miss women’s basketball team, athletics director Ross Bjork announced.

Insell has helped guide Kentucky to four 20-win seasons and four trips to the NCAA Tournament in his time in Lexington. The Wildcats have ended the last three seasons ranked in the top-25 and are currently ranked No. 7 heading into the team’s Sweet Sixteen game Saturday.

Insell, who was responsible for the guards while also having recruiting and player development duties, served as the top assistant coach and helped UK ink three top-10 recruiting classes and seven McDonald’s All-Americans. […]

Murder-suicide confirmed in deaths of couple and child in Lee County

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A coroner has confirmed that two adults and a 13-year-old girl found shot to death in a home in Lee County Tuesday were the victims of a murder-suicide. The bodies of 55-year-old Wiley Young, 46-year-old Danica McCord and her daughter, Destiny McCord were discovered around 8:30 a.m. March 26.

Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson said an officer with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks arrived at the residence on County Road 49 and found the victims after efforts to contact them had failed.

Unconfirmed reports said the officer was Young’s adult son. […]

Escaped inmate found dead in jail cell

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An escaped Rankin County inmate was discovered dead in his jail cell one day after being found in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Officials with the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) said 27-year-old Bryan Owens was found hanging from his cell late Tuesday afternoon.

MDOC Spokesperson Tara Booth said officers were serving dinner when they found Owens hanging from a sheet in his cell.

Owens was housed alone, Booth said, and he was pronounced dead at 5:09 p.m.

Owens escaped on Sunday, March 24. […]

Mississippi jobless rate jumps sharply in January

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Mississippi’s unemployment jumped to 9.3 percent in January, wiping out almost a year’s worth of job gains.

The state’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in December and 10 percent rate in January 2012.

The number of people who reported having a job fell even as the state’s labor force shrank. Mississippi reported 141,000 unemployed people in December, up from 123,000 in December and 135,000 in January 2012. […]

Condoleezza Rice: Democracy requires responsibility

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Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a Mississippi State University audience that a mature democracy requires individual citizens understand not only their rights, but also their responsibilities.

Rice spoke about current world events, saying the United States and the world are facing some very difficult times, yet with great opportunities that suggest optimism.

“Whenever I visit a place like this, a great university where our best and brightest are studying, I am indeed optimistic,” she said. […]

Medgar Evers’ exhibit coming to Dept. of Archives and History

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In observance of the 50th anniversary of his death, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) will commemorate the life of civil rights leader Medgar Evers with exhibits and programs.

Evers was the Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP from 1954 until his assassination in the driveway of his family’s home in Jackson on June 11, 1963.

On May 1, a History Is Lunch lecture by Myrlie Evers-Williams, former director of the NAACP and Medgar Evers’s widow, will open the exhibit “This is Home”: Medgar Evers, Mississippi, and the Movement.

Evers-Williams is now a distinguished scholar-in-residence at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Miss. […]

Lillie Ayers, key figure in historic lawsuit, dies at 85

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Lillie B. Ayers, who became the lead plaintiff in Mississippi’s college desegregation lawsuit after the death of her husband, Jake Ayers, died Sunday at her home in Glen Allan in Washington County. She was 85.

Henry Ayers, Lillie Ayers’ son, said his mother died of complications from bone cancer.

Funeral services are pending. […]