WINONA – Another person has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Winona businessman earlier this month.
Montgomery County Sheriff Jerry “Bubba” Nix said Thursday that Betty Ann Young of Winona, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with accessory after the fact in the murder of William “Chug” McCuiston. Nix said Young admitted this week that she disposed of the murder weapon and other evidence relevant to the investigation.
On Dec. 1, McCuiston, 45, owner of the Spring Hill Tree Company, was found shot to death in his home by his wife and teenage daughter. Two days later, his son-in-law, Curtis Davis, Jr., of Kilmichael, confessed and was arrested for his murder.
Davis, 24, told authorities that he gained entry into the McCuiston home in Duck Hill through an unlocked sliding back door and that he used McCuiston’s 30-30 rifle to shoot McCuiston in the back. Sheriff Nix confirmed that McCuiston had been shot twice.
During their investigation, Nix said his department interviewed several people, who were also given polygraph tests. Davis, a convicted sex offender on parole, was being transported to Batesville for a polygraph when he told deputies he had never had a polygraph before and he reportedly confessed to the killing prior to the test.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department recovered the rifle used in the murder after Davis said he gave it to his cousin, Betty Young. Nix said his department recovered the weapon after Young told them she threw it in a garbage dumpster near the J.J. Knox Gym in Winona, but she denied having any knowledge about the murder.
On Tuesday, Nix said Young had been asked to take a polygraph test when she reportedly told authorities that she did, in fact, know about the killing.
“She said Curtis brought the gun over the night that it happened and he told her, ‘It had to be done‘,” Nix said. “And the next day he gave her $180 cash and a bag with a billfold in it for her to dispose of it.”
Nix said Young reportedly threw the plastic bag with the wallet in the same dumpster next to the gym. Authorities have not recovered the wallet.
“She said she never saw the billfold,” Nix said. “She went on what [Curtis] said was in there and she [told us] she was sorry about not being honest up front.”
Young was arrested and taken to a jail for women in Grenada County. Her bond was set at $5,000.
Both Young and Davis appeared before Judge Donald Bond in Montgomery County Justice Court Thursday and Davis was bound over to the grand jury for murder, grand larceny and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. He is still being held without bond at the Carroll-Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility. Young, who has three prior charges of bad check/false pretense and a simple assault charge waived her preliminary hearing.
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