Mississippi’s death row: A look at the 37 inmates, and the crimes they committed
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- Mississippi houses 37 death row inmates, with 36 men and one woman.
- Inmate convictions span from recent killings to decades-old violent crimes.
- Those sentenced to death are guilty of capital murder during a violent crime.
Mississippi has 37 death row inmates and all but one are men. Richard Gerald Jordan, 79, is the longest-serving death row inmate, and is scheduled for execution Wednesday.
Jordan, 79, was convicted of capital murder in the January 1976 kidnapping and killing of Edwina Marter, a Gulfport banker’s wife. Jordan kidnapped Marter for ransom after learning her husband was the chief loan officer at a bank.
.Here’s a look at each of Mississippi’s death row inmates:
Martez Abram
45, two counts of capital murder, attempted murder
The details: A jury convicted Abram of two counts of capital murder and attempted murder in the July 2019 shooting deaths of Walmart employees Anthony Brown, 40, and Brandon Gates, 38, at a store in DeSoto County. A jury convicted him on attempted murder in the same shooting for injuring a Southaven police officer at the scene.
Abdur Rahim Ambrose
40, capital murder.
The details: Ambrose was sentenced to death in the June 2015 beating and stabbing death of Robert Trosclair, 31, in the DeLisle community of Harrison County. The victim was found face down in a roadside ditch, covered in blood and dirt, with his hands and waist tied with a ratchet strap.
Bobby Batiste
45, capital murder
The details: Former Mississippi State University student Batiste was convicted of capital murder in the beating death of his roommate, Andreas “Andy” Galanis, 28, of Biloxi, on March 7, 2008, at an apartment the two shared off campus .in Oktibbeha County.
Devin Bennett
45, capital murder
The details: Bennett was convicted of capital murder for the 2000 killing of his 2-month-old son, Brandon Bennett, in Rankin County.
James Billiot
64, capital murder
The details: Armed with an eight-pound sledgehammer, Billiot, 32, bludgeoned to death his mother, Audrey Croll, 47, his stepfather, Wallace Croll, 53, and his stepsister, Cheryl Ann Croll, 14, on Thanksgiving Day 1981 in Hancock County. He was later deemed mentally unfit for execution. Until his mental health is restored, he remains on death row.
Joseph Patrick “Peanut” Brown
56, capital murder
The details: Brown shot and killed Natchez convenience store clerk Martha Day in 1992. Brown and his girlfriend needed money for drugs and shot Day when she walked in the store.
Xavier Brown
59, capital murder
The details: Brown is sentenced to death in the murder-for-hire case in Lamar County that resulted in the 1998 shooting death of Felicia Newell. Newell’s ex-husband wanted her dead. He died by suicide days after her killing.
Anthony Carr
59, four counts of capital murder
The details: Carr and his co-defendant tortured and killed Carl Parker, his wife, Bobbie Jo Parker, and their two children, Gregory Parker, 12, and Charlotte Jo Parker, 9, in their rural home in Walnut in Quitman County on Feb. 2, 1990. The crime occurred after the family interrupted a burglary in progress after attending a church bible study.. The suspects tied up the victims before assaulting and torturing them. During the attack, the suspects cut off Carl Parker’s finger to steal his wedding band, and the defendants took turns raping the 9-year-old girl in a case before setting the house on fire to try to cover up the crime. The little girl died of smoke inhalation, and the other family members died of gunshot wounds.
Caleb Carrothers
43, two counts capital murder
The details: Carrothers was convicted of capital murder in the July 11, 2009, shooting deaths of Frank Clark, and his son, Taylor, in a case involving drugs and money. He’d been placed on parole about six weeks before the killing. He had served time in connection with four armed robberies.
Lisa Chamberlain
52, two counts of capital murder
The details: Chamberlain and Roger Lee Gillett were convicted of capital murder in the killings of Gillett’s cousin, Vernon Hulett, 34, and Hulett’s girlfriend, Linda Heintzelman, in Hulett’s home in Hattiesburg in March 2004. The couple put the dismembered remains in a freezer at an abandoned farm that belonged to Gillett’s grandfather in Russell, Kansas.
Ricky Chase
56, kidnapping, capital murder
The details: A jury in 1990 convicted Chase and another man in the Aug. 14, 1989, robbery and shooting death of Elmer Hart in the Hazlehurst community. Hart walked in on a robbery at their home. (His wife was there).
Tony Terrell Clark
45, capital murder and attempted murder.
The details: A jury convicted Clark of capital murder in the 2024 shooting death of Muhammed Saeed, 13, and the attempted murder of the boy’s father, Fahd Saeed, at the family’s convenience store in Canton. Clark’s nephew received a 40-year sentence for armed robbery in the same case.
Charles Ray Crawford
59, aggravated assault, rape, capital murder.
The details: A jury in April 1994 convicted Crawford of capital murder in the 1993 assault, rape and robbery of Krista Ray, 20 in Tippah County.
David Dickerson
55, capital murder
The details: A jury convicted Dickerson of capital murder in the 2011 shooting and stabbing death of his former girlfriend and mother of his child, Paula Herrington Hamilton, near Wesson in Copiah County. Dickerson set fire to Hamilton’s body during the attack.
Leslie “Bo” Galloway III
41, capital murder.
The details: A jury convicted Galloway of capital murder in the Dec. 10, 2008, rape and murder of 17-year-old Shakeylia Anderson in Harrison County. Hunters found her body. Prosecutors said she had been raped, burned and run over by a vehicle Hunters found her body.
Alberto Julio Garcia
40, capital murder
The details: A Harrison Count judge sentenced Garcia to death after he pleaded guilty to capital murder in the July 2014 rape and hanging death of 5-year-old Ja’Naya Thompson in Gulfport. Garcia kidnapped the girl, raped her repeatedly and hanged her by two two socks in an unoccupied mobile home not far from the girl’s home in Gulfport.
Willie “Cory” Godbolt
43, eight counts of capital murder
The details: Godbelt is sentenced to death for the May 27, 2017, shooting deaths of eight people, including Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy William Durr, three women at a home in Bogue Chitto and four other people at two other homes in Brookhaven.
Blayde Grayson
49, capital murder
The details: Gray beat and stabbed to death Minnie Smith in 1996 in George County. She had been stabbed at least 30 time and beaten. He eventually confessed to the the killing. Grayson had been in town to visit his grandparents. AT this girlfriend’s some in Florida, authorities found a small knife used to commit the murder in Grayson’s girlfriend’s home.
Joseph David Heard
41, capital murder
The details: A jury convicted Heard of capital murder in Dec. 27, 2021, beating death his 2-year-old stepson Hayden Bataille in a Biloxi home he shared with the child’s mother. The child’s mother, Hailey Heard, pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.
Marlon Latodd Howell
45, capital murder
The details: Howell shot and killed newspaper carrier Hugh David Pernell in New Albany in 2000. Also known as Marlon Cox, was sentenced to death in 2001 for the death of newspaper carrier Hugh David Pernell in 2000 during an attempted robbery in New Albany. In 2023, he filed a successive petition for post-conviction relief. That motion is still active in the state Supreme Court.
James Cobb Hutto
53, capital murder
The details: Hutto is sentenced to death for capital murder in the September 2010 beating death of Ethel Simpson, 81, of Clinton. Simpson had struck up a friendship with Simpson when they met at a Health complex. She took him to gamble at a Vicksburg casino before her body was found days later on a hog farm.
Kelvin Jordan
48, capital murder
The details: Jordan shot and killed Tony Roberts and his his two- year old son in 1995 in Clarke County. His co-defendant received a life sentence. The pair committed the crime to collect money to attend a football game.
Richard Gerald Jordan
79, capital murder
The details. Jordan kidnapped Edwina Marter, a Gulfport banker’s wife, for ransom after he forced her at gunpoint to leave her home with him despite her pleas to stay because her then 3-year-old son at home.
.Jason Lee Keller
45, capital murder, armed robbery
The details: A jury sentenced Keller to death for capital murder in the June 21, 2007, robbery and shooting death of Hat Nguyen, 41, at her family’s store, Popp’s Ferry Road Food Mart in Biloxi. He is serving an additional sentence of life without parole for December. 2007 armed robbery of Hancock Bank in Lyman.
Steve Michael Knox
57, capital murder
The details: Knox was convicted in the robbery and strangulation death of Ella Mae Spears in Franklin County. She was found dead in the trunk of her car after her relative reported her missing.
Thong Le
42, capital murder
The details: Le was sentenced to death in 2002 in the 2001 home invasion style robbery and strangulation deaths of Huynh Minh Thi and her daughters, True Huynh Thann Nguyen, 15, and Hang Huynh Thuy Nguyen, 11, at their St. Martin home in Jackson County.
Willie Jerome Manning
57, two counts capital murder
The details: Manning is sentenced to death in the December 1992 murders of Mississippi State University students Tiffany Miller, 22, and Jon Steckler, 19, in Oktibbeha County.. At the time of the killings, Jon Steckler was studying forest resources, while Miller was studying nursing. Authorities believe Manning raped Miler before shooting her in the head and mouth. Steckler died of a gunshot wound and authorities found him on the side of the road.
Eric Moffett
51, capital murder
The details: A jury sentenced Moffett to death in 2006 for the 1994 rape and strangulation death of 5-year-old Felicia Griffin in Hinds County. It was revealed during the trial that Moffett had forced his fist in the child’s vagina, ripping it apart.
Terry Pitchford
39, capital murder
The details: A jury sentenced Pitchford to death in 2006 for the Nov. 7, 2004, shooting death of Grenada store owner, Ruben Britt.
Stephen Elliot Powers
56, capital murder
The details: Powers is convicted of capital murder for the attempted rape and shooting death of 27-year-old Elizabeth “Beth” Lafferty at her home in Hattiesburg. She had been shot at close range.
Timothy Robert Ronk
45, armed robbery, capital murder.
The details: A jury sentenced Ronk to death in 2010 in the Aug. 26, 2008, armed robbery and stabbing death of Michelle Craite, 37, whose remains were found amid the fiery ruins of her home on Timber Ridge Lane in Biloxi’s Woolmarket community.
Robert Simon Jr.
61, four counts capital murder
The details: Simon is sentenced to death for three counts of capital murder plus life for one other count of capital murder. On Feb. 2, 1990, Simon and his co-defendant, Anthony Carr, restrained, tortured and killed Carl Parker, his wife, Bobbie Jo Parker, and their two children, Gregory Parker, 12, and Charlotte Jo Parker, 9, in their home in Walnut in Quitman. The attack occurred after the family returned home from a church bible study and interrupted the suspects burglarizing the family’s home. During the attack, the suspects cut off Carl Parker’s finger to steal his wedding band, and took turns raping the 9-year-old girl before setting the house on fire.. The little girl died of smoke inhalation, and the other family members died of gunshot wounds.
Cyde Wendell Smith
55, two counts capital murder
The details: Smith shot and killed Johnny Smith during a 1992 robbery at Sidon Package Store of storeowner Johnny Smith and his brother, Jerome Smith. His co-defendant is serving a life sentence.
Roger Thorson
67, capital murder.
The details: A jury in 1988 sentenced Thorson to death for the kidnapping, rape and shooting and stabbing death of ex-girlfriend, Gloria McKinney in Harrison County in March 1987. Thorson met McKinney when they worked together at the old Morrison’s at Edgewater Mall. Her body was found in the woods. His attorney says he is mentally incompetent to face a death sentence, though his appeals are ongoing.
Justin Underwood
51, capital murder
The details: Underwood shot and killed Virginia Ann Harris in Madison County County in 1994. He shot her with a gun stolen from the victim’s uncle. He erroneously claimed the victim asked him to kill her because her husband had AIDS.
Alan Dale Walker
59, arson, capital murder
The details: Walker kidnapped raped and drowned Konya Rebecca Edwards, 19, of Long Beach, at Crystal Lake in Harrison County on Sept. 8, 1990.
Derrick D. Walker
44, arson, capital murder
The details: Walker killed Tupelo personnel director Charles Richardson and set fire to his home on July 17, 2001, in Lee County.
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
