Ex-Biloxi firefighter guilty of murder in 2015 killing of Coast Waffle House waitress

A jury on Thursday found former Biloxi firefighter Johnny Max Mount guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Waffle House waitress Julie Brightwell.

The jury reached its verdict in two hours. Mount has been sentenced to life in prison.

In closing arguments, assistant district attorney Billy Stage asked the jury to hold Mount accountable for his actions.

“He wants you to say that he is innocent,” Stage said. “He absolutely is not.”

Mount did not react when the verdict was read. But upon sentencing, when Judge Lisa Dodson asked if he had anything he would like to say, he asked her to “finish the seventh crucifixion.”

Prosecutors played videos during the trial that show Mount pull a gun from his concealed holster and shoot Brightwell once in the head. In one angle, video shows Mount reach across to aim at Brightwell, who ducks under the counter, then goes limp in a pool of blood.

Prosecutors contended the killing was a rational act committed by a man who knew that what he was doing was wrong. They said the case was as straightforward as they had ever seen.

“Did he know what he was doing and did he know the difference between right and wrong?” assistant district attorney George Huffman said in closing. “Absolutely he did.”

Mount’s attorney, Jim Davis, argued an insanity defense. He said Mount suffers from “extreme mental illness” that intensified in the years after he was struck by a car, lost his left leg and endured a traumatic brain injury. And Davis argued even though Mount may have known shooting someone was wrong, he did not understand the nature or quality of the act.

“I don’t believe he really felt it would kill someone,” Davis said. “He did not appreciate the fact that someone may die.”

Mount’s family members, who have been in court each day, gathered outside the courtroom around Mount’s mother after the verdict. Some shed tears.

The family said in a statement Davis read in court that they want to “extend their sincere condolences to the family and friends of Ms. Julie Brightwell.”

“After a severe accident resulting in a traumatic brain injury, the Johnny they knew and loved was lost,” the family said. “They are saddened that the loss of their loved one caused the loss of Julie and brought pain and grief to her friends and family.”

Huffman also said Brightwell has an aunt who was unable to attend the trial but who said Brightwell was loved and missed.

In the three-day trial, the jury listened to testimony from teenagers who feared for their lives in the Waffle House, police officers who responded to the scene and a psychiatrist who said Mount understood what he was doing at the time of the shooting. From the defense, they heard testimony from a colleague Mount worked with in the U.S. Marine Corps, Mount’s mother and Mount himself.

Mount testified in his own defense Wednesday and said at the time he shot Brightwell, he was being harassed by what he told the jury were national security officials who built up so much frustration in his mind he had to release it. He said that night he drank beer, took part of a prescription painkiller for a toothache and grabbed a gun with 32 bullets to protect himself from the delusions he said might attack him. Then he walked to Waffle House.

During cross-examination, assistant district attorney George Huffman demanded Mount answer whether he pulled the trigger. Mount said “God pulled that trigger” but when Huffman asked if God had acted through him, Mount said “yes.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2023 at 1:42 PM.