BOONEVILLE – The Mississippi Highway Patrol has concluded that an inmate who ran out in front of a truck, while on a work detail, did not commit suicide, but rather was killed by accident. On Sept. 23, 28-year old Melvin E. Weathers was working on County Road 1101 when he was struck and killed by an oncoming truck.
Prentiss County Sheriff Randy Tolar said Weathers was working with another inmate and the two were being supervised by a county employee. Tolar said Weathers was working down an embankment when he attempted to run up the hill.
“He was weed eating or something,” Tolar said. “And the supervisor said he saw the truck approaching and he flagged it to slow down and it did. The supervisor turned to see if the inmates were in the road, they weren’t and he motioned the truck on by. That’s when [Weathers] got a running start up the hill and he ran right out in front of the truck.”
Tolar said Weathers was transported to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Booneville where he later died from his injuries.
The driver of the truck was not injured.
Tolar said after contacting the Mississippi Department of Corrections, since Weathers was serving two years for grand larceny, he immediately turned the investigation over to the highway patrol.
“We asked them to work the wreck because we didn’t want anyone to think we were biased,” Tolar said. “And due to the fact that it’s still under investigation, we wanted to cross all our T’s and dot all our I’s. And we called in the specialist in the event something comes up later.”
Master Sergeant Allen Lyles, an accident reconstructionist with the highway patrol, said he later went to the scene as part of his investigation. Lyles said while the second inmate and the county employee both said they had their backs turned and did not witness the accident, Lyles said other witnesses at the scene all gave statements confirming that it was an accident.
Tolar said he’s satisfied with the investigation, but he is still troubled by the tragedy.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for over 30 years, and sheriff for 11, and I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Tolar said. “We’ve had the inmate program here in Prentiss County for several years and it’s been very successful. But this just seems to be one of those tragic things. It was a terrible accident.”
Tolar and Lyles said the driver of the truck will not be charged in Weather’s death.
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