Gulfport man sentenced for killing girlfriend, leaving body on I-10 to be hit
“Cold, callous and calculated.”
That’s just some of the words Harrison County prosecutors used again and again to describe the actions of first-degree murder suspect Deondrick Mychahl Jones the morning he shot and killed his girlfriend, Nila Stennis. The shooting happened after she stopped on Interstate 10 after the pair got into an argument.
Jones claimed he acted in self-defense after Stennis came after him with a knife, but a jury didn’t buy it and convicted him Friday of first-degree murder in the Nov. 27, 2022, killing. The jury also convicted him of taking away a motor vehicle for taking her car after he killed her to flee to Jackson.
Judge Lisa Dodson sentenced Jones to life in prison for first-degree murder plus a five-year sentence for taking away a motor vehicle, which runs concurrently with the life sentence.
Harrison County prosecutors Matthew Burrell and Patricia Simpson shot down the claims of self-defense, saying Jones was mad at Stennis when he pulled out a gun and fired three shots, resulting in her death.
Afterward, Jones left her body on Interstate 10, and an 18-wheeler ran over it.
“She was 23 when she was tragically killed at the hands of this defendant,” Burrell said. “He shot her in the head, he shot her in the middle of the back, he left her in the middle of the interstate, he stole her car and fled to Jackson.”
According to prosecutors and Gulfport police, Jones and Stennis, of Gautier, had driven to Gulfport to go to Elaine’s Place, then went to Island View Casino in Gulfport afterward, where they argued. Surveillance footage showed the pair arriving at the bar (Elaine’s Place) at 12:26 a.m. on the day of her death.
Jones and Stennis left the bar at 1:51 a.m. and arrived at Island View Casino at 1:58 a.m. They got into a fight outside the car at the casino before they got back in and left at 2:02 a.m.
During closing arguments, Burrell reminded jurors about the horrific scene Gulfport police encountered at the crime scene.
Her body had “exploded,” Burrell said. “There was blood everywhere. This semi-truck ran her over because he left her there. She was run over by a 77,000-pound machine because of him. Don’t forget that.”
His actions after the killing, Simpson argued, revealed a methodical effort by Jones to hide what he had done. He didn’t return to his grandmother’s house in Jackson, where he had lived for years, but instead stayed at a friend’s house in a remote area to hide the car and avoid arrest.
Furthermore, Simpson said that in the hours after the murder, Jones went to Motel 6 and had sex with another woman whom he continued to see before his arrest and continued his life as if nothing had happened.
“He was mad and probably drunk, but probably drunk is not a defense,” Simpson said. “He was cold, callous and calculated.”
As for a large knife found 10 to 20 feet from the victim’s body, Simpson said Jones likely planted it there before he fled the scene to help stage his defense in the event of his arrest.
The jury deliberated for less than two hours before rendering a verdict.
Jones offered his apologies to “everybody” before his sentencing.
An air of sadness fell over those in the courtroom when Nila’s mom addressed the jury before sentencing.
Nichole Stennis talked through tears about the life-altering grief she continues to suffer as a result of her daughter’s “tragic and senseless death” by a man who once called her “Mom.”
“Nila Stennis was my best friend, ... and the pain in my heart is unbearable,” she said. “When I close my eyes, I think of my daughter laying on the interstate alone. ... Did she cry out for me?”
Since her daughter’s death, her mother said the grief had overwhelmed her to the point that she has experienced suicidal ideation that prompted her to seek treatment.
“The only difference between Nila and me is that I am still alive,” she said. “I continue to live without her physically, but I am not living. I am only existing.”
Defense attorneys Lauren Hillary and Angela Broun represented Jones at the trial.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM.
