JACKSON – The last of seven defendants has been sentenced for staging a car accident in Yazoo County, Attorney General Jim Hood said. Lorenzo Deering, 24, of Pickens, appeared before Judge Jannie M. Lewis in Yazoo County Circuit Court and entered an open plea to the charges against him.
Deering and six others were found to have staged a crash in Yazoo County. Law enforcement officers were immediately able to determine, and an investigation later verified, that the whole scene had been set up.
Judge Lewis sentenced Deering to three years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, suspended and sent Deering to the restitution center to pay all fines and court costs.
If Deering pays all of the court costs and fines then the Court will non-adjudicate his sentence.
“This was one of those humorous, Apple Dumpling Gang type cases,” said Attorney General Hood. “The caper unraveled when alert law enforcement officers noticed that one of the vehicles had been towed to the crime scene. They found the tow chain still attached to the vehicle.”
Hood said Deering and his accomplices towed the broken car, a black Cadillac, to the scene. They then pushed it off the road and hit it with a hammer and metal bar in order to make it look more damaged. When they found they couldn’t remove the tow chain, they wrapped the chain up in hopes of concealing it.
Hood said the group, which included two minors, waited for cars to pass by and then they would fall out on the ground pretending to be hurt until a driver stopped and called for help.
Each participant complained of minor injuries and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment. Alert law enforcement officers discovered the car’s engine was cold and then uncovered the broken engine and concealed tow chain.
One defendant, Terrence Wade, was arrested at the hospital, and officers obtained confessions from the other participants before handing the case over the Insurance Fraud Unit of the Attorney General’s Office.
Wade was sentenced to jail for his role in the scheme.
Melissa Gates, Kildrick Deering, Terry Wade, Kevin Jones, and Connie Stewart were also given jail time for taking part in the crime.
Hood said, an additional suspect, Kevin Jones, knowing that he would be arrested in the case, went out and committed robbery in order to raise his bail money.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigations handled that case and Jones was found guilty.
“The bottom line here is great work on the part of the law enforcement involved in this case, especially an alert Yazoo County Deputy Sheriff and a State Trooper who were quick to put two and two together,” said Attorney General Hood.
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