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Two University of Mississippi students died on Monday, sparking an ongoing investigation and a warning against using an herbal substance sold at many gas stations.

The Oxford Police Department on Tuesday shared a news release on social media issued by Lafayette County Metro Narcotics, which said authorities are conducting two investigations into the deaths of the students, who were not named. It also advised avoiding kratom, sold in gas stations across much of Mississippi.

“Law enforcement is currently conducting two separate death investigations,” the statement reads. “At this time, we have no confirmed evidence indicating that the two deaths are connected. However, packaged Kratom sold from a retail store was found during both investigations. Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage everyone to avoid kratom and any other medication or substance that was not prescribed to you or obtained from a trusted, regulated source.”

Despite the warning to avoid the substance, the news release also said authorities had not found information indicating that kratom or any other substance was a contributing factor in either death. Kratom can be legally sold in many parts of Mississippi to people over the age of 21, but more than 30 counties, including Lafayette County, and cities in Mississippi already restrict or ban kratom products.

In a separate statement, Shawnboda Mead, vice-chancellor for student affairs at the University of Mississippi, confirmed both people who died were students. Mead also said the university was not aware of any additional deaths, contradicting social media rumors that suggested otherwise.

“The University is heartbroken by the recent loss of two students and extends our condolences to their families, friends and loved ones during this difficult time,” Mead said. “We are aware that considerable unverified information is circulating on social media and in the community regarding these recent student deaths. The Coroner’s Office has confirmed two student deaths, and University Police are not aware of any additional student deaths.”

Several fraternities and sororities on campus issued announcements warning their members about cychlorphine, a synthetic opioid that does not show up on standard fentanyl test strips, according to the Daily Mississippian, the university’s student newspaper. Many Greek organizations also cancelled social events scheduled for this week in response to the student deaths, the newspaper said.

News of the deaths came on the heels of the University of Mississippi football team’s dramatic victory on Saturday over Louisiana State University, which drew huge crowds to Oxford and prompted a weekend of celebrations on campus and throughout Oxford.

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State Rep. Jeffrey Hulum III, who’s represented Harrison County in the state House since 2022, says his experience as a 22-year Army combat veteran, and years of helping feed the neediest Mississippians has taught him about leadership and how to bring communities together. Hulum is the Democratic nominee for the 4th District U.S. House seat in Mississippi, running against incumbent Republican Mike Ezell.

No ransoms were paid to hackers during the cyberattacks that hit the University of Mississippi Medical Center or Institutes of Higher Learning this year, officials confirmed to Mississippi Today. 

“No state taxpayer dollars were used” to pay the perpetrators of either attack, said Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford and the chair of the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee.

A cyberattack struck the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning offices on Sep. 7, temporarily rendering the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid unable to process student applications and payments. IHL officials are working with federal law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals to determine what happened and whether confidential or sensitive data was accessed or compromised.

IHL spokesperson John Sewell said the agency did not pay a ransom connected to the attack. He said he could not yet share an update on the agency’s recovery process. 

In February, a ransomware attack targeted the University of Mississippi Medical Center, compromising the health care system’s IT network and leading officials to shut down affected systems to contain the threat. As a result, the state’s only academic medical center closed clinics across the state and canceled elective procedures for nine days. IHL oversees the state’s public universities, including UMMC. 

Ransomware, or malicious software that holds computer systems or data hostage in demand for payment, has increasingly targeted healthcare organizations with the aim of garnering large payouts by disrupting critical infrastructure. 

Marc Rolph, a spokesperson for UMMC, said Friday the medical center did not pay a ransom to the hackers. 

Officials told Mississippi Today in April the medical center was conducting a detailed forensic analysis with support from the FBI and cybersecurity experts to determine what data was accessed or exfiltrated during the cyberattack. 

Ransomware group Medusa claimed credit for the cyberattack in March, nearly a month after the initial attack that shut down UMMC’s network. The group demanded payment to prevent the publication of stolen data, cybersecurity news outlet The Record reported. A UMMC spokesperson declined to confirm whether Medusa was the organization that attacked the medical center. In an April blog post, Louann Woodward said the perpetrator is well known to the FBI.

On Monday, State Auditor Shad White sent a letter to IHL Commissioner Al Rankins Jr. seeking more information about the agency’s response to both attacks. White requested information about the nature and scope of the incident, whether a ransom or extortion payment was requested, information about any such payments and copies of and plans for remediation. 

“Taxpayers deserve to know what happens to their money and the IHL should be transparent with what happened here,” White wrote in the letter.

PASS CHRISTIAN — Muddy, sweat-soaked and occasionally bloody, the dedicated staff at a Mississippi wildlife center are drill sergeants. And their soldiers? Baby raccoons.

Welcome to raccoon boot camp, where the goal is to help sick or injured animals learn to survive in the south Mississippi wilderness — a skill set they would have learned from their mothers, most of whom died or were separated from their kits by storms, traffic accidents or other traumatic events.

It’s a challenge that’s left Woodside Wildlife Rescue’s founder, Paula Woodside, with cuts from scared, defensive raccoons and their sharp claws, and when she isn’t able to save a kit, emotional scars too.

“When these babies come in, and they’re so desperate, it’s heartbreaking,” said Woodside, who most days is covered in sweat from caring for the animals in the Mississippi heat, and dirt from curious kits crawling up her legs and onto her shoulders. “It’s really important for them to get a little bit of a head start.”

After being weaned, the young troops get a taste off the wild

Woodside, a former U.S. merchant mariner, opened the rescue in 2019 after she helped rehabilitate a baby raccoon found aboard her ship. The rescue in the coastal city of Pass Christian typically raises dozens of kits each year, 76 so far this year, alongside other indigenous wildlife.

City animal control and citizens call Woodside, or the rescue’s director, Raquel Priest, when they find a raccoon in need of saving. Together, they attempt to reunite the kits with their mothers, if they can find them, or bring the kits to the rescue.

The youngest raccoons will spend a few weeks mostly indoors being bottle-fed by rehabbers until they’re vaccinated for diseases carried by cat colonies and dogs and are ready to move to outdoor pens.

Though the kits stay close to their adoptive human parents, they’re eventually allowed to roam free during the day on the rescue’s rural 20-acre property, a sprawling mix of meadows and thick forest spotted with ponds and a nearby river. Thanks to that setting, Woodside and Priest can take their troops on learning excursions, a luxury many wildlife rescues don’t have, Woodside said.

Teaching by example: digging for worms and cracking acorns

Woodside and Priest teach by example. They hide worms in the dirt to show the kits how to dig for food, and break open pine cones or acorns to reveal the seeds inside. The raccoons’ eyes light up when they encounter a new tasty food, and they run to show their discovery to their rehabbers before hurrying back to fend off other kits who might try to steal their find.

Where a drill sergeant might yell, ‘Attention!,’ Priest and Woodside give a shrill trilling sound, mimicking the raccoon call for danger, that sends the kits running up trees to safety. A short whistle lets the troops know the coast is clear.

The kits also practice fishing in shallow pools, their uncoordinated paws tentatively patting the water until they’re quick enough to snag a snack. A live quail hunt provides hunting experience. While these are skills raccoons would likely learn on their own, Woodside’s staff hopes the training gives the kits a greater chance of survival.

On the property’s pond, the raccoons learn to swim, a critical skill in hurricane-prone south Mississippi. The rehabbers take to kayaks and encourage the kits to swim back and forth. They also take trips to the deep woods, where kits learn to run from tree to tree to avoid being seen by birds of prey and to have a quick escape route from snakes or other dangers on the ground.

Raccoons graduate to ‘Pomp and Circumstance Marches’

For their final lesson, a volunteer — who isn’t Woodside or Priest — traps the raccoons in cages, scaring them enough to encourage them to avoid traps and humans. The experience helps the young raccoons wean themselves from their human rescuers, a process Priest said naturally occurs as they mature.

When a group of kits is ready for release, about six months after their rescue, Woodside and Priest host a graduation ceremony. They play Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance Marches,” and read a roll call of each graduating kit’s name.

A reverend then blesses their journey as they’re released onto a different section of the rescue’s forest-covered property. For kits that die in care, the staff holds a second ceremony to bless and scatter their ashes.

“It’s like watching your children leave home,” Priest said. “It’s important to see them prosper and go and be the mischievous creatures they were meant to be.”

The parents of Nolan Xavier Wells say they will continue to push for answers about his death, after a Jackson County grand jury concluded that he likely drowned and no one would face criminal charges.

Their attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton said that the grand jury report doesn’t close the book on Wells’ death or answer lingering questions about what led to it or how the 18-year-old died. 

His mother, Christine Wonsley, said she received a text message from Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath Monday evening, not long before McIlrath posted the grand jury’s redacted report and a video explaining its findings on Facebook. 

Monday was Wonsley’s birthday. 

“Last night was a reminder that our son’s life does not matter to those who hold positions that are supposed to serve and protect the public,” Christine Wonsley said Tuesday during an online news conference at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia. 

Wells, who was Black, traveled from Ocean Springs to Horn Island on the Fourth of July with friends. His body was found in the water off the Mississippi Gulf Coast barrier island two days later. 

While the grand jury heard evidence that he likely drowned, both the state medical examiner and a pathologist who completed an independent autopsy ruled Wells’ death as undetermined. In a preliminary report, Dr. Roger Mitchell, the pathologist hired by the family, said all other causes must be ruled out to conclude a death was by drowning. 

Mitchell also wrote that the record and examination doesn’t establish whether Wells entered the water on his own or was forced into it, and whether he was conscious when it happened. 

Because of lingering questions and Mitchell’s findings, the family’s legal team called for the district attorney to keep the death investigation open and to look further into blunt force injuries documented on the back of Wells’ head and neck, including whether they contributed to his death.

Attorney Ben Crump, who represents Wells’ parents, released Mitchell’s final autopsy report Tuesday, which the pathologist was able to complete after traveling to Mississippi and gaining access to reports from the state medical examiner. 

Mitchell concluded that two red discoloration marks were blood. The state examiner identified them as contusions early in the investigation, but did not explain where they came from, he wrote. 

“That is not nothing,” attorney Liza Park, a member of the family’s legal team, said about Mitchell’s updated findings. “That is where we begin to begin to understand what happened to Nolan Wells.” 

If new evidence is uncovered relating to his death, a grand jury can meet again to consider it and decide whether to charge anyone. Mississippi does not have a statute of limitations for murder charges. 

The family’s legal team and the NAACP are calling for McIlrath’s office to release the state’s autopsy report and the investigative file. They also continue to ask the U.S. Department of

Justice to complete a federal review as requested by the Congressional Black Caucus in August.

Forensic experts are examining Wells’ cellphone, and Crump said they will talk about what they found in an upcoming news conference. 

Crump asked the public not to attack Wells’ parents for continuing to seek answers. 

The case gathered national attention and sparked discussion about Mississippi’s history of  investigators not examining the deaths of Black people with the same rigor as the deaths of white people. 

This summer, at least three out-of-state people have been charged with threatening to kill or hurt witnesses in the investigation, including Wells’ friends and their family members. 

Friends of Wells have said they faced death threats from their names, pictures and personal information being shared online.

Attorney Russ Latino, who is representing a former teammate of Wells, sent a cease-and-desist letter to at least one content creator, the Sun Herald reported. Attorneys representing the three friends who traveled to Horn Island with Wells threatened to sue Sharpton, Mississippi Today has reported. This week, the same attorneys also said they would sue “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin for comments she made, the Clarion Ledger reported.

On Monday, attorneys representing the friends acknowledged the grand jury’s decision not to indict, including one who demanded that Crump apologize to three of Wells’ friends. 

“We still have a First Amendment right here, and we still have the right to ask questions when our children are unalived in inexplicable ways,” Crump said at the Tuesday news conference. “We won’t stay silent, we won’t let it be swept under the rug and we won’t go quietly into the night because Nolan deserves better than that.” 

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful ideas to be shared about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here. 

Although the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit from Mississippi residents related to lead-contaminated water earlier this month, the right to safe drinking water has been recognized by the United Nations as a universal human right since 2010.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a historic resolution in 2010 recognizing “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of  life and all human rights” (A/RES/64/292). To advocate for these rights, the UN appointed a special rapporteur on the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Such access to safe drinking water is considered a vital asset for the survival and coexistence of human societies. The criteria for such access are simple: water must be available, accessible, affordable, safe and acceptable. Most importantly, water is not a product to be traded and should never be considered an “economic commodity.”

Why did the United Nations adopt a human-rights based approach to safe drinking water? Access to safe water is considered by many to be the foundation of a healthy, educated and economically strong community. The right to a dignified life includes the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. For Americans, the basic rights defined in the Declaration of Independence as “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” are impossible without safe drinking water.

Unsafe water spreads diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and typhoid, compromising the physical health of any community. Safe water allows for gender equality and dignity by allowing us to maintain our personal hygiene and prevents women and girls in many countries from walking long distances to fetch water, compromising their safety and depriving them of the time they might be in school or at work. 

Safe water also makes it possible for young people, who might otherwise be incapacitated by waterborne illnesses, to attend school.

We are now in the eighth year of the United Nations Water Action Decade (2018-2028) and the World Economic Forum continues to rank the water crisis in the top three global risks. Given the enormity of that threat, the Forum named 2026 the “Year of Water.” 

Many Americans take clean water for granted. However, there are 2.1 billion people worldwide still living without access to safe drinking water, and far more drastic actions need to be taken to protect watersheds, design more resilient cities, and improve efficiency to conserve the clean water that exists for consumption and agriculture.

Protecting our natural resources for the sake of the common good, known simply as the “commons,” is central to the sustainability of our shared resources. The stewardship of those resources should not be driven by personal interest, economic gain or political ambition, but by a spirit of shared responsibility and accountability.

The water crisis for those who live in Jackson, Mississippi was avoidable. The actions that led to the contamination of public drinking water was not only a failure of governance but a staggering display of indifference to the health of its inhabitants, the region’s collective natural resources and utilities.

Unlike Montana, Pennsylvania or New York, there is no “Green Amendment” in Mississippi – an amendment to a state constitution’s Bill of Rights that recognizes and protects “the inalienable rights of all people to clean water and air, a stable climate and healthy environments.”

Nevertheless, managing the commons that houses our water supply requires transparent and publicly accountable management – a failure that looms large in the Sterling v. City of Jackson case.

Unlike the case in Flint, Michigan, Mississippi’s 5th Circuit Court rejected the claim that government officials had violated the residents’ right to bodily integrity, as protected under the 14th amendment. Equally egregious was the 5th Circuit’s conclusion that “we find no deeply rooted history or tradition establishing a constitutional right to truthful information from officials during a public health crisis” 

The question then remains; who exactly is responsible for the commons and the truth about its condition in the state of Mississippi? 

Emma Gilligan is the author of “The Future and You” and a leading expert in international human rights. With over 30 years of experience in the field, she currently serves as a professor of human rights at Indiana University and is co-founder of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine. 

As Mississippi’s state government agencies embrace artificial intelligence, or AI, in their work, officials say human oversight remains essential.

Mississippi defines AI in part as “a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments.“

In January 2025, Gov. Tate Reeves issued an executive order directing the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services to survey and evaluate state agencies’ use of AI and develop AI use policy recommendations. For the survey, called the Mississippi State Agency AI Inventory, each state agency had to submit either a standardized report listing current and potential AI use or a letter stating no plans to use any. 

Out of 98 entities that responded, a little over half were using or planning to use AI. 

The Mississippi Department of Transportation, for instance, is working on AI projects for querying crash data, automating quality control across documentation and more.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality uses Grammarly, ChatGPT, Microsoft CoPilot and other programs for things such as research, drafting emails and calculations. The agency also uses several cybersecurity services, including Rubrik, Proofpoint and Silversky.

A cumulative total of 243 active or planned AI projects were reported across 44 agencies. The majority of AI projects, or 82%, were rated low-risk, and 69.5% relied solely on human decision making.

MDOT and MDEQ are among the five agencies that, when combined, account for a significant amount of AI usage across all state agencies, or 35%. The other three are the Department of Employment Security, the Department of Information Technology Services and the Mississippi Arts Commission.

Mississippi Today made a public records request for the completed inventory surveys from the these five agencies, and asked further questions about their AI use. 

ITS did not fulfill the public records request, citing an exception in the executive order. The Department of Employment Security and the Arts Commission provided their completed surveys, but did not respond to detailed questions. 

“Our annual AI inventory is designed to capture a point-in-time snapshot during the second quarter of each calendar year,” explained ITS chief strategy officer Stephanie Hedgepeth. “We then analyze the data during the third quarter, with the report targeted for publication on the ITS website early in the fourth quarter.”

Hedgepeth said that while AI isn’t new, what is new is how accessible it’s become because of generative AI tools. Generative AI is an advanced form of AI that can create new content.

She, as well as leaders and spokespeople for the departments of Environmental Quality and Transportation, emphasized that AI is a tool to assist humans, not replace them. 

Paul Katool, MDOT’s deputy director of public affairs, explained that AI use is rapidly growing across the agency. 

“It enhances efficiency, enabling our existing staff to complete more work – often faster – without increasing headcount or overall labor costs,” he said.

“The reality is that we have fewer staff than we have ever had historically,” said Chris Wells, the Department of Environmental Quality’s executive director. At the same time, their workload has arguably increased. 

A 2025 national report found that MDEQ’s staff decreased by 17% between 2010 and 2024, and funding decreased by 71% in the same time frame. Records show that the agency’s total appropriations, including state funding and fees collected for services, dropped by over a quarter between fiscal year 2011 and fiscal year 2025.

Though most AI projects took a careful approach, the report found that governance hasn’t kept pace with adoption. The findings include recommendations for improvement, such as stronger protections for confidential data and communication, stronger accessibility and mitigating bias and misinformation for public-facing AI tools.

“Each agency is responsible for governing its use of AI in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, policies and requirements,” wrote Hedgepeth in an email.

ITS adopted the Acceptable Use Policy for Artificial Intelligence, which is meant to be a resource for state agencies to create their own AI policies.

The Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Regulation Task Force was established in 2025 to analyze all things related to regulating AI in Mississippi until 2027, and to report its findings and recommendations to the state Legislature annually. One of the recommendations the task force adopted was that state agencies disclose to citizens when they are engaging with an AI system.

The Department of Transportation issued its AI use policy in February. The Department of Environmental Quality and the Arts Commission are still developing theirs. 

Even without an AI policy, agencies still have rules. For the tools identified in their AI inventory report, employees at the Department of Environmental Quality are responsible for reviewing AI-generated information before using it. AI is not used to make decisions, either. The Arts Commission recently started requiring grant applications to disclose AI use.

Mississippi currently has a handful of AI laws, but the attorney general’s office determined that Mississippi has no overarching AI framework, according to the state’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation task force’s report.

Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order seeking to limit states’ ability to regulate AI. 

Republican Sen. Bart Williams of Starkville, co-chair of the Artificial Intelligence Regulation task force and chair of the Mississippi Senate Technology Committee, doesn’t believe the president’s executive order will impact AI regulation in Mississippi.

“I think we’re gonna look at what’s best for our citizens and what we need to do for them,” he said.

Williams said AI will definitely be a topic of conversation in the 2027 legislative session. Many legislators are concerned about AI as it relates to children’s safety online and the workforce. However, he doesn’t know if it will be regulated.

The task force’s panelists recommended taking a “wait and see” approach. The report states the AG’s office recommended monitoring how the order impacts existing computer-related state laws that do not mention AI specifically.

Kollin Napier is chief AI officer of the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network, the nation’s first statewide AI initiative. MAIN is in partnership with ITS to spearhead usage and adoption. It does not have a regulatory role.

Napier spoke about the importance of governance.     

“That comes as acceptable use. It comes as a statewide framework, structured pilots and so much more. So that way, you don’t have agencies just sort of experimenting in the dark, so to speak,” he said.

The AI Innovation Hub, established by ITS, Amazon Web Services and MAIN, has student teams work on solving AI use cases for state agencies. The teams presented their work at a showcase in May. 

Napier said the return-on-investment for the innovation hub and MAIN’s workforce development efforts are “tremendous.”

Mississippi governmental agencies are part of a growing trend. AI use is prevalent in governmental agencies across the country.

A 2024 survey found that 51% of state, local and federal government employees who responded used AI daily or several times a week. In a Google Public Sector survey of 250 federal IT professionals, 90% said their agencies were already using or planning to use AI.  

Federal agencies are using AI for a variety of projects, from facial recognition systems to helping the public search through historical records.

This story is developing and will be updated.

A grand jury found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the death of Nolan Xavier Wells, a Black teenager whose body was found near a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast two days after he went missing on the Fourth of July.

The condition of his body was consistent with drowning, according to a redacted copy of the Jackson County grand jury report that District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath released Monday night on Facebook.

“In addition to bringing prosecutions against the guilty, the grand jury must also exonerate those who have been falsely accused,” McIlrath said in a video that accompanied the report. 

The grand jury issued 132 subpoenas during its investigation and heard from 43 witnesses as it reviewed whether criminal wrongdoing had occurred when Wells did not return from an excursion to Horn Island with friends on the Fourth of July, according to the report. 

As part of that review, the grand jury considered physical and digital evidence and heard testimony from witnesses and investigators. The grand jury reviewed cell phone data and forensic reports, with photographs, videos and GPS data. 

The decision by the grand jury not to indict someone is not the same as an acquittal of a potential crime. There is no statute of limitations for murder charges in Mississippi. If new evidence ever surfaces in connection with Wells’ death, a grand jury can meet in the future to consider whether that evidence shows someone may have committed a crime. 

McIlrath said she took her oath as district attorney a little over a year after burying her own child.

“When I was sworn in, I promised to fight for and protect you and your children as I would my own. I meant it then, and I mean it now,” she said. “The death of Nolan Wells has devastated our community. Outsiders and influencers have attempted to exploit Nolan’s death and create chaos here. But we are better together.”

Emails released to social media by the district attorney’s office also show she shared the report with attorneys representing Wells’ family and his estate. 

Correction, 9/21/2026: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of McIlrath.

Columbus-area District Attorney Scott Colom urged a judge Monday to dismiss the murder indictment against Tameshia Shelton, months after the state Supreme Court let stand a Court of Appeals ruling that threw out her conviction for the death of her sister’s boyfriend. 

Shelton served 11 years behind bars in the 2009 shooting death of 21-year-old Danelle Young. She was freed from prison in June after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruling. The Mississippi Court of Appeals had stated that prosecutors failed to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Shelton murdered Young. The mother of four, now 48, is supposed to face a new murder trial in Clay County on Oct. 5.

If Circuit Judge James T. Kitchens Jr. grants the district attorney’s request, it could put an end to a case that has followed Shelton the last 17 years.

The office of District Attorney Forrest Allgood, Colom’s predecessor, oversaw the 2015 prosecution. Now Colom is arguing the state doesn’t have evidence to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Young didn’t kill himself. 

Upon hearing the news about Colom’s request to the judge Monday, Shelton screamed and said, “Oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh! I’m so overwhelmed.” She said she feels like doing cartwheels.

The Clay County Circuit Clerk’s Office told Mississippi Today on Monday that the judge had not determined whether to dismiss Shelton’s indictment, but would reach a decision by the time of the retrial. 

A crumbling case

On June 1, Mississippi Today published its four-year investigation that found much of the evidence in Young’s death suggested he killed himself. A key piece was Young’s apparent suicide note, but the jury in Shelton’s 2015 trial never saw it before convicting her of murder.

Days after the story ran, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in Shelton’s favor, and she was freed on bond, awaiting trial.

Not long after arriving at Young’s fatal shooting on Oct. 16, 2009, Clay County sheriff’s deputies concluded his death was a homicide. Shelton, who has maintained her innocence, became the prime suspect because she was the last known person to see Young alive. 

A pathologist with the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Young’s death a homicide, based on the trajectory of the bullet, but reversed that decision in a 2021 hearing, concluding that the death should have been “undetermined,” most likely suicide.

In his motion, Colom wrote that he asked the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office to review the pathologist’s autopsy and that the office told him it could not provide any additional services. 

“In light of this development,” Colom wrote, “the State does not have evidence upon which a reasonable jury could rely to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Young’s death was a homicide rather than a suicide.”

Shelton also called 911 to report Young’s death to officers and get him medical aid, which could make her innocent in the eyes of a “reasonable jury,” Colom wrote.

Colom: ‘The evidence sounded thin’

For years as district attorney, Colom had supported a second look at Shelton’s murder conviction. 

Her case first came to his attention in 2018, after Shelton’s family came to him in an effort to get her out of prison. He had inherited a prosecutor’s office that oversaw six tossed-out murder convictions, all under Allgood. If the judge grants Colom’s new request, Shelton would become the seventh.

Allgood previously told Mississippi Today that he and his staff never tried anyone they thought was innocent, but that he did not recall the Shelton case, which other prosecutors in his office tried.

After Colom looked into her case, he started to have questions. “The evidence sounded thin,” he told Mississippi Today. “There was not much motive.”

Colom reached out to the Mississippi Innocence Project, whose attorneys ultimately secured the reversal of Shelton’s murder conviction and her freedom from prison. He also wrote a sworn statement supporting a hearing to determine whether she deserved a new trial.

When the state Supreme Court unanimously ordered such a hearing in 2020, Judge Kitchens removed Colom from the case because of that statement and had the attorney general’s office replace him.

“Eight years ago, Scott Colom met with Tameshia’s family to hear their concerns that she had been convicted of a crime that never happened,” Shelton’s current attorney, Sandra Levick, said in a statement Monday. “He had nothing to gain in taking that meeting. He had nothing to gain in signing an affidavit urging the Court of Appeals to allow a hearing so that the facts could be known.”

An apparent suicide note goes unseen

When Young was found shot outside Shelton’s trailer, he had been in town to visit his girlfriend and her younger sister, Ketina Tutton. The couple had been planning on living together, and Young wanted to get married. But Tutton changed her mind after getting a new job, her family said.

At about 8 p.m. on the evening of Young’s death, the couple’s dreams of a new life together had deteriorated into a verbal spat that lasted 15 to 20 minutes. “I had just told him that we were not – that I was not going to move in January like we had planned,” Tutton later told deputies. “This was something we had planned … until I got the job.”

The argument ended with the couple parting ways. She said she walked inside her mother’s house, and Young headed to Shelton’s trailer. 

It was dark when Shelton said Young knocked on her bedroom window. She was already in bed with her two daughters.

When she came to the front door, she said Young told her there was a raccoon in the tree and that he needed Shelton’s revolver and only one bullet to kill it.

She said she replied that he might need more than one bullet, so she loaded the .22 pistol and handed it to Young.

She said she heard a shot, and when Young didn’t return, she went outside to check on him and found him under a tree.

Weeks after Young’s death, Shelton said she found an apparent suicide note in which he wrote, “I have no life without (Ketina). These are my last words.”

She shared the note with her defense lawyer, Rod Ray, who failed to introduce the note as evidence at trial.

Mississippi Today shared the note with five jurors in Shelton’s original murder trial. Three said they believed the note created reasonable doubt about her guilt. 

In Mississippi, a person can’t be convicted of murder unless every juror agrees on a guilty verdict. 

In his Monday request, Colom wrote the note is another piece of evidence that “undermines” any prosecution against Shelton for murder.

“Today, he moved to dismiss the indictment because the facts are known and they show that a grave injustice has taken place,” Levick said in a statement Monday. “We join in urging the Court to grant the motion to put an end to this nightmare for Tameshia Shelton and her family.”

GULFPORT — Juanita Wallace has lived at Gulfport Care Center for six years. With several family members out of state, her phone helps her stay connected — but using it has not always been easy. 

“I really appreciate (Gulf Coast Connection Services) because I really needed (help), because I sure did not know how to operate my phone,” Wallace said. 

Wallace is one of the residents receiving help from Gulf Coast Connection Services. Founder Vanessa Welch helps residents make video calls, adjust accessibility settings and troubleshoot phones, tablets and computers. 

Her company aims to help nursing home and assisted living residents overcome technology barriers that can leave devices unused and make it harder to communicate with relatives who cannot regularly visit. 

Mississippi’s Digital Skills and Accessibility Plan identifies people 60 and older as one of several populations facing barriers to digital access. Among the challenges for older Mississippians, the plan identifies limited digital skills and cybersecurity knowledge and calls for expanded digital literacy training and technical support.

One-on-one assistance 

Welch meets with residents at Gulfport Care Center on Tuesdays and Fridays, working with groups and going room to room to reach those who cannot leave their beds. 

Lisa Perdue, the center’s activity director, said the program provides one-on-one technology assistance that staff may not have time to offer. 

“One-on-one, for that amount of time, it is pretty impossible for a CNA to take two hours, an hour with a resident to help them with things like that,” Perdue said. “That’s where Vanessa comes in.” 

Welch developed the idea after volunteering at another local nursing home, where she saw residents struggling with isolation from their families. 

She started Gulf Coast Connection Services in June and began reaching out to assisted living facilities. Gulfport Care Center joined the pilot in July. 

Perdue, who has worked in nursing home activities for 26 years, said her experience during COVID-19 visitor restrictions drew her to Welch’s plan. 

“We gave iPads any way we could during COVID, to keep them connected with their families,” Perdue said. “That’s why I was so on board with (Welch), because I saw what the video calls did during COVID, what they did for families.” 

A 2023 systematic review published in JMIR Aging found video calls and other communication technologies were used in long-term care facilities during the pandemic to help residents maintain social connections and address isolation and loneliness. 

Although pandemic-era visitor restrictions have ended, Perdue said residents with limited mobility can still experience isolation. 

“Imagine that you cannot move. You can’t do anything for yourself,” Perdue said. “The only touch you get that day is from a CNA who is positioning you in a different way. You know, no hugs, no physical interaction with anyone besides care.” 

Staying in communication 

Welch arranges video calls through Google Meet. When a resident requests a call, she contacts the family member, explains the service and schedules a time. 

She also helps residents enlarge text, turn on closed captions and access games, digital books and audiobooks. She creates reference sheets for residents to use after lessons and teaches them to identify possible scams.

Linda LaHood, who lives at the center with her husband, Gerald, said she had learned previous phones on her own but struggled with her newest one. 

“She’s helped us learn this phone like we had never been able to learn before,” LaHood said. “It’s complicated for older people because we don’t know how it all works.” 

Welch said closed captions transformed one resident’s video calls with his sister. Because he has hearing loss, his sister normally used a whiteboard during FaceTime calls. 

“I was able to turn on the closed captioning so he could read it as she was saying it, and they were able to just have a conversation,” Welch said. 

For Lashona Lewis, the calls help close the distance between Texas and Gulfport, where her mother lives at the center. 

“You get a free visit. You didn’t have to travel to do it. You don’t have to take off from work,” Lewis said. “It’s not to replace your in-person connection, but in the event that the person has a family dynamic where there’s not a lot of in-person visitors, this video visit is really important.” 

Beyond the pilot 

Welch volunteers her time, and the facility, residents and families do not pay for the service. Donations help provide chargers, phone cases and educational materials. 

Outside of her work at Gulfport Care Center, Gulf Coast Connection Services offers paid assistance to people living at home or in privately-owned assisted living facilities. 

Welch initially planned to serve several nursing homes for two hours at a time. But her experience at Gulfport Care Center showed her that there was not enough time to answer questions and provide individual assistance. 

For now, she is focusing on Gulfport Care Center while determining how to make the program sustainable. She hopes to expand to other nursing homes along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and eventually make the service her full-time work. 

For Wallace, learning to use her phone is about maintaining relationships with people who cannot always be in the same room. 

“Communication is the most important thing with family,” Wallace said.