Mom has a message for Gulfport man who killed her son in a Bay St. Louis park
Xavier Lamar Simmons, 21, of Gulfport has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery and then heard from the mother of the man he killed.
“Not only did you take his life, but you robbed him of the opportunity to be with his son, start his new job and live the life that God blessed him with,” Twanna Washington told Simmons, who had apologized for the shooting death.
District Attorney Joel Smith announced the plea agreement Friday.
D’Ante Washington was shot at Martin Luther King Park in Bay St. Louis on June 6, 2018.
“You also robbed me of the opportunity to continually enjoy my son,” Washington told Simmons. “I have to go to a cold grave to tell my son how much I love him. You took a part of me that I will never get back and that has permanently altered my life.”
After the plea, Judge Forrest Johnson sentenced Simmons to 40 years, with 20 years to serve in prison.
Bay St. Louis Police Department responded to a call of shots fired at the park.
“Witnesses described a gold sedan leaving the area and a T-shirt being thrown out of the window, that later was forensically tested and matched to Simmons’ DNA,” said Chris Daniel, assistant district attorney.
“Detectives were able to identify the owner of the gold sedan and were able to determine that it was being used by Simmons at the time of the shooting. Other witnesses are the scene we able to later identify Simmons as the shooter.”
