WINONA – A Kilmichael man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for shooting his father-in-law to death in December 2009, while his wife was sentenced to 10 years for her involvement in the crime. Curtis Davis, Jr., 25, plead guilty to killing Winona businessman William “Chug” McCuiston, just before the start of Montgomery County Circuit Court. His wife, McCuiston’s stepdaughter, Najalah Cage Davis, 28, was convicted of grand larceny and conspiracy to commit a crime.
On Dec. 1, 2009, McCuiston was found on the floor near the front door of his home on Minerva and Lodi Roads in Duck Hill, by his wife and their teenage daughter. McCuiston had been shot twice in the back.
Montgomery County Sheriff Bubba Nix said Davis confessed to the murder on Dec. 3 while being transported to Batesville for a polygraph test.
Davis said he gained entry into McCuiston’s home through a sliding glass door, and that he waited for McCuiston to return home and shot him when he arrived.
Davis told authorities he then gave the weapon used in the murder, a 30-30 hunting rifle, to his cousin, 39-year old Betty Young, of Winona, later that night.
The rifle belonged to McCuiston.
A few weeks into the investigation, Young was also arrested and charged with accessory after the fact. Nix said when deputies initially questioned Young about the rifle and the murder, she denied any knowledge of the case.
As she was about to take a polygraph test, Young admitted that she threw the rifle in a dumpster behind a school gymnasium and that she had also disposed of a man’s wallet.
Young was indicted on charges of uttering forgery and conspiracy to commit a crime and those charges are still pending in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Young was released from jail on that indictment on Nov. 4. Her bond was $5,000.
At the time of McCuiston’s murder, Davis was on probation for statutory rape in Oktibbeha County, and will now serve the remaining 20 years for that conviction, in addition to 30 years for killing McCuiston.
Those sentences will run concurrently and Davis must serve 50 years with Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC).
His wife, Najalah, is also in MDOC custody, serving 10 years for stealing McCuiston’s rifle and her role in his murder, and one year on a prior false pretense charge in Oktibbeha County.
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