Judge orders Phillip Moran held in custody overnight over alleged death threats
Judge Christopher Schmidt ordered former Mississippi State Sen. Philip Moran held overnight in custody pending a decision on whether to revoke his bond in a bribery case over alleged death threats the ex-senator made.
The District Attorney’s Office is asking to revoke the bond, alleging Moran made death threats during a Jan. 22 conversation with a member of the Hancock County Board of Supervisors.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Daniel argued that Moran poses a danger to the community.
During a hearing Tuesday in Circuit Court in Gulfport, prosecutors played a recording of a conversation between two FBI agents and the supervisor, identified as Darrin Bo Ladner, after authorities received tips about the alleged threats.
In the Jan. 26 recording, Ladner said the conversation occurred Jan. 22, after Moran called him to his Diamondhead home to talk. Ladner said Moran asked who was trying to put him in jail and told him he had plenty of ammunition and could “wipe somebody out tomorrow.”
In addition, Ladner said he was told pancreatic cancer runs in Moran’s family and said the elder Moran said if he found he had the cancer tomorrow, he’d wipe a lot of people out.
“You know, ... I think he’s so embarrassed right now there is no telling what he is going to do,” Ladner said.
The hearing is set to continue on Wednesday. Judge Christopher Schmidt ordered Moran jailed overnight pending a final ruling on the bond revocation.
Here are excerpts from the interview FBI agents had with the supervisor.
“He called me to his house and asked me, “Who the hell is trying to put me in prison? I said, first of all, Philip, I wouldn’t tell you. Second of all, I don’t know. So, I told him, I don’t know.’’
Ladner went on to say he hated to be doing the interview with the agents because “Philip has been good to me.”
Ladner added that he didn’t like being dragged into this, because, “the one thing I’m not is a damn rat.”
Ladner explained that Philip Moran never mentioned any specific names when he made the threats, but said he knew Philip Moran just “bullies his way through life.”
He said Philip Moran thinks Ladner does know who is trying to send him away. I told him, “ I don’t know, and even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell him, that I wouldn’t get involved in this.”
In the conversation, Ladner said, Moran then “ rambled on about (how) if he found out he had cancer, he’d kill a bunch of people.”
In response, Ladner told Moran, “Buddy, that’s up to you whoever you want to shoot.”
Morans want judge disqualified
Philip Moran and his son, convicted sex offender, Alan Moran, are asking a judge to disqualify Schmidt from presiding over their upcoming bribery trial.
Philip Moran’s attorney, H.H. Klein III, of Hattiesburg, made the request over an alleged conversation Schmidt had with a deputy requesting a search warrant for cellphone data in the case.
To support the action, Philip Moran’s attorney argues that evidence obtained through the search warrant for cellphone data tied to his client should be thrown out because the warrant was based on “defective” facts and circumstances and failed to connect the phone number to the Morans.
Judge Schmidt has said he doesn’t recall the conversation, only that he was outside his home when he signed off on the warrant.
Now, Schmidt is scheduled to testify at a hearing on the disqualification request. That hearing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was pushed back because of the issues involving the bond revocation. Harrison County Circuit Judge Randi Mueller will preside over the hearing after Philip Moran’s attorney announced plans to call Schmidt as a witness.
If Schmidt is not disqualified from the case, the Morans are formally requesting his recusal to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
Alan Moran’s attorney, Donald Rafferty, said his client wants the change because Schmidt has presided over other proceedings involving his client, including his decision to send Moran to prison for 12 years for violating his probation on a child exploitation conviction.
“We’ve had such a history with the judge, and that’s what my client wanted to do,” Rafferty said.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Burrell countered the arguments, saying the judge had sufficient probable cause to issue the search warrants for cellphone data from each of the defendants in the case. The judge Tuesday declined Alan Moran’s request for hi to recuse himself from the case.
A grand jury indicted Philip and Alan Moran, along with Jeremy Billings and Ian Schexnayder, on felony charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery. Prosecutors allege the group attempted to pay Alan Moran’s stalking victim $20,000 to drop the misdemeanor charge against him.
Both Billings and Schexnayder have pleaded guilty to bribery and are awaiting sentencing later in February. They are expected to testify against Philip Moran and his son at the trial, currently scheduled in February.
New criminal affidavits recently filed in the case outline additional evidence against the father and son that includes information about a tip to law enforcement about the former state senator making a large cash withdrawal the same day the stalking victim reported that crime..
Waveland police and the FBI first started investigating the bribery case in December 2024, after the stalking victim told authorities that two men on motorcycles —later identified as Billings and Schexnayder — approached him at Lowe’s and offered $20,000 to drop the stalking charge. Authorities say the men offered $5,000 in cash upfront, with the remaining balance set to be paid after the teen dropped the stalking charge.
A $30,000 cash withdrawal and a bribery attempt
Investigators interviewed witnesses and reviewed Lowe’s surveillance footage, which helped identify Schexnayder and Billings as the two men who arrived at the store on motorcycles to make the bribery offer.
Billings recruited Schexnayder to help carry out the plan.
During the investigation, the records say, a Lowe’s employee told police that the day the crime was committed, Billings and Schexnayder showed her a backpack containing cash and asked her to bring the stalking victim outside so they could make the offer.
During the investigation, authorities discovered Billings had ties to Philip Moran because Billings had been in an accident in a car registered to Philip Moran in 2024.
Billings has since admitted that Alan Moran reached out to him about carrying out the bribe in the stalking case. Schexnayder said Billings recruited him to go with him to make the cash offer.
In the new records filed in the case, authorities say they also found out that the day the stalking victim accused Moran of stalking him, Philip Moran took out a $30,000 cash loan on a CD at Keesler Federal Credit Union in Diamondhead. In video footage of the transaction, an investigator said the elder Moran is seen receiving the cash in three bundles, each wrapped in a $10,000 bank band, the investigator said.
According to the records, Billings and Schexnayder were supposed to receive $5,000 each for carrying out the bribe, though they never received the payment.
During his plea hearing, Billings said Alan Moran called him to the family business in Kiln to ask him to carry out the bribe and gave him the cash he needed to do so. Billings said Philip Moran was there and heard the conversation.
After the failed bribery attempt, Billings said Philip Moran called him to ask about the remaining cash, which he said Moran referred to as “tools” in the conversation.
Philip Moran, he said, wanted him to bring the cash back to the family office in Kiln in Hancock County.
Billings said he went back to the office and left the cash on Philip Moran’s desk, though he said Philip Moran later claimed that all the cash he was supposed to bring back wasn’t there.
According to the records, authorities received two anonymous tips about Philip Moran going to the bank to get the $30,000 in cash.
After the failed bribery attempt, the tipster said Philip Moran later returned to the bank to make a $20,000 cash deposit.
This story was originally published January 27, 2026 at 1:30 PM.
