A Jackson Municipal Court judge set a $5 million bond Monday for a third suspect charged in the killing of Tasia Fortune, as authorities said they were expecting more arrests in connection with what the judge called “an extremely heinous act.”

The latest suspect, Eric Derrell Clark, 45, made his initial appearance in court after turning himself in on Friday. He was appointed a public defender. Two others – Jarques Ratliff, 51, and Earnest Lloyd, Jr., 25 – were previously denied bond after being charged with murder earlier this month in connection with Fortune’s death.

The 29-year-old Fortune was found hanging from a tree early last month in west Jackson. The case drew national attention because of the manner in which she was found. 

At Lloyd’s preliminary hearing on Friday, Jackson Police Department Detective Samuel Dukes testified that Fortune was killed after a dispute over drugs and that her hanging was staged.

During Monday’s hearing, Judge Jeffery Reynolds said the killing shocked the community and damaged people’s sense of safety.

He called the staged hanging “an extremely heinous act” that “invoked the terrible history of our state.”

Outside the Jackson Municipal Court building, Police Chief RaShall Brackney suggested the ongoing debate about race in the death of Nolan Wells, a Black college student in south Mississippi, might have unjustifiably spilled into the narrative surrounding Fortune’s death.

“This has created even more damage in our communities,” Brackney said.

“We know we have a very sordid history around lynchings and racial terror across this nation, and particularly around the South.”

“The defendants here are entitled to a fair and impartial trial, not one that is tried in the media, but one that is tried in the courts based on facts,” she said.

Wells, 18, disappeared on July 4 after an outing with friends to an island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, and supporters of his family have questioned whether he was killed.

A grand jury found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but his family and their legal team want the investigation to remain open.

Brackney said the investigation into Fortune’s death is ongoing and more charges and arrests could be coming.

According to Brackney, Fortune had a “known association” with all of the defendants charged so far. All of them, like Fortune, are Black.

Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, was in tears as she spoke to reporters after court Monday. She revealed that Clark spoke to her the day he turned himself in, shortly after Ratliff’s preliminary hearing.

“He never said he did it, but he said he was there to turn himself in for murder,” Spivey said.

She said she knew her daughter’s hanging had to be staged.

“I know that, because she loved life,” Spivey said. “She was always so positive about everything, even when she was down in her worst moments.”

Associated Press reporter Sophie Bates contributed to this report.