Supreme Court upholds trial
The Mississippi State Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man charged with accessory after the fact to murder in connection with a 2017 St. Patrick's Day murder of Jamarcus Townsend.
Darron Lashaun Thames was found guilty April 12, 2019, on the charge of accessory after the fact to murder. He had also been indicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder but was acquitted at trial.
In a ruling released Feb. 4, the State Supreme Court found no error by the Eighth District Circuit Court with then Judge Christopher A. Collins presiding, no unfair prejudice by the state's use of impeachment evidence to contradict a witness and no proof that the jury's verdict "was not supported by overwhelming weight of evidence."
District Attorney Steven Kilgore said he was pleased with the ruling, and his office can final put the case of the “Newton Nine,” as law enforcement dubbed them, to rest.
“This officially closes the case for us,” Kilgore said. “We were confident that the Supreme Court would rule in our favor. We felt good about the case that we presented, and we were able to get the conviction.”
The appeal, submitted by public defenders George T. Holmes and Erin Elizabeth Briggs, centers on testimony given by Richard Lofton, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for testimony against other suspects related to the murder.
The attorney contend that Lofton's testimony changed during Thames' trial. Lofton originally testified that Thames was involved in the case, but during the April 2019 trial, Lofton changed his testimony and said Thames had nothing to do with the incident.
After the defense cross-examined the witness, the prosecution then introduced unsworn statements and testimony from the other trials that contradicted Lofton's new statement.
Kilgore said that it was unusual that they had a witness change is statement while he was on the stand.
“It is very ususual for a witness to do that,” Kilgore said. “He had given us no indication that he would do that on the stand. And this is after he has already testified under oath in several trials already. It was even something that Judge (Christopher) Collins had mentioned during the trial. We introduced those other statements to contradict those statements in this trial, but we were very confident in the trial.”
