One of 5 accused of lying to police after Biloxi officer killing gets prison
Dalentez Latavian Brice — one of the five men accused of helping Darian Atkinson after he shot and killed Biloxi police officer Robert McKeithen — was sentenced Wednesday to serve seven years in prison, District Attorney Crosby Parker said in a press release.
Brice, 22, had pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution of the capital murder in May 2020.
He was sentenced to the maximum allowable term of 15 years. Eight of those years are suspended, leaving him seven years to serve in a Mississippi prison. After serving his prison sentence, Brice will serve five years of post-release supervision, and will be required to pay a fine and other court costs.
At the plea hearing, Crosby said that Brice told the court he lied and intentionally misled police by saying that he denied knowing Atkinson or his family.
He also failed to tell police that he was present at Atkinson’s mother’s residence in the early morning hours of May 6, 2019, when Atkinson arrived at the home. He didn’t tell police that Atkinson made potentially incriminating statements at that time and that Atkinson was provided a change of clothing by his brother, Wanya Atkinson.
Darian Atkinson is scheduled to stand trial for capital murder in the case in May.
Wanya Atkinson, Davison Atkinson, Joshua Kovach and Andre Sullivan have all pleaded guilty as accessories after the fact to capital murder and are set to be sentenced in March.
