PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) — A judge has ordered the return of Stephen McGilberry to the Jackson County jail to await resentencing in the 1994 beating deaths of four family members.
The Sun Herald reports Circuit Judge Roberts Krebs issued the order Friday, and Circuit Judge Dale Harkey signed off. Jackson County deputies are to retrieve McGilberry from the state prison at Parchman on Sunday and bring him back to the Jackson County jail until sentencing.
McGilberry, now 37, was 16 when he killed his mother, stepfather, sister and her 3-year-old son with a baseball bat.
He won a third chance at sentencing after a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that automatic life sentences for juveniles violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The court ruled that certain factors, such as the age of the offender at the time of the killing and the nature of the crime, should be considered first.
McGilberry’s stepfather, Kenneth Purifoy; mother, Patricia Purifoy; stepsister, Kimberly Self and her 3-year-old son Kristopher Self, were killed in October 1994 in St. Martin. McGilberry took a money order from his mother’s purse and drove away in the family’s vehicle.
The jury sentenced him to death, but a U.S. Supreme Court barred the death penalty for juveniles. In 2005, McGilberry was re-sentenced to four life terms without parole.
McGilberry said he committed the crimes because he was mad at his mother for grounding him from using the family car. She did so, authorities said, because he’d stopped going to school and lost a job.
McGilberry claims he’s changed since the killings, having found God and been ordained as a minister. He’s also married and says he’s been a trusted inmate over the years.
Michael Purifoy, Kenneth Purifoy’s son, said his family wants McGilberry to remain in prison for the rest of his life. The family and others have written letters to the Jackson County District Attorney Tony Lawrence to ask that he remain imprisoned.
Charlotte James, Kenneth Purifoy’s sister, said the family had moved on with their lives “just to have him open up the can of worms again. We are victimized all over again, and yet the court is worried about his rights and treats him like this poor, little victim.
“He had no remorse for what he did,” she said. “Four people no longer have their lives. My brother was the most loving, caring, easygoing guy that you could ever meet.
“These four people, these innocent people, will never get up again and have a life. Why should he?”