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A north Mississippi farm worker died of extreme heat exposure in early September amid one of the hottest summers in recent state history. 

Obed Azahel Hernandez Perez, a 24-year-old man from Mexico, died Sept. 8 from prolonged heat exposure while harvesting sweet potatoes, according to Chickasaw County Coroner Larry Harris. In an email, Harris said the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating the incident.

OSHA began an inspection on Sept. 9 into a worker heat-related death at Alexander Farms LLC, a Vardaman sweet potato farm owned by Ryan Alexander near the Chickasaw County and Calhoun County border. It’s the first death inspection conducted by Mississippi’s only OSHA office that was listed as heat-related this year. 

An OSHA Eastern Regional spokesperson said in an email to Mississippi Today that she was unable to immediately respond to questions about the incident. 

Mississippi has some of the most dangerous working conditions in the country. In 2024, workers in Mississippi died at a higher rate than anywhere except Wyoming, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data. 

This year was Chickasaw County’s hottest summer since 2011, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The temperature in nearby Calhoun City reached a high of 98 degrees Fahrenheit, according to federal data. 

When Mississippi Today called Alexander Farms, an employee acknowledged the death but said she wouldn’t get into the details before hanging up the phone. The company didn’t respond to an email asking what Hernandez Perez’s job was, how long he had worked there and how the farm protects employees from heat-related dangers.

An Alexander Farms job application on the U.S. Department of Labor website says that the company planned to hire 117 seasonal farm workers this fall. The farm worker responsibilities include “all duties involved in planting, growing and harvesting corn, soybeans and sweet potatoes.” 

On the application, listed duties include stooping and kneeling to pick vegetables, removing weeds, carrying bags of potatoes weighing up to 50 pounds and driving trucks and tractors. Alexander Farms lists the pay at $12.50 per hour, with a deduction of $1.15 per hour for immigrant workers who stay in company housing. 

The job’s start date was about two weeks before Hernandez Perez died. Debbie Berkowitz, a former chief of staff for OSHA, told Mississippi Today that heat-related deaths are common when seasonal employees first begin their jobs. 

“They’re not acclimated to do this work in high heat,” Berkowitz said. 

Both the federal and Mississippi governments have few heat protections for workers. In 2024, the Department of Labor proposed a federal rule that would’ve required companies to provide their employees with shade or air-conditioning, cool drinking water and regular rest breaks whenever the felt temperature was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. It also would’ve required employers to acclimate new workers to high heat conditions and create plans to quickly spot heat illnesses.

Two years after the rule’s initial proposal, OSHA has yet to finalize workplace heat standards. Last November, U.S. Rep. Mark Messmer, a Republican from Indiana, proposed a bill to ban OSHA from ever implementing it. 

Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary for the federal agency, told Mississippi Today that national workplace heat regulations could have saved Hernandez Perez’s life. 

“If that had become a standard and the employer was in full compliance with that standard, that worker would likely be alive today,” he said. 

Some states implement their own workplace heat standards, but Mississippi isn’t one of them. The state uses federal workplace health standards and is one of five states that doesn’t have its own labor enforcement agency. 

Other Mississippians, experiencing health effects tied to increasingly hot summers,  may have died of heat exposure on the job, according to Barab. Berkowitz said it’s common for heat-related workplace deaths, like Hernandez Perez’s, to be undercounted. Workers exposed to high temperatures can die with little public notice and no follow-up investigations. 

“There’s no press, nobody knows about it,” Berkowitz said.

Harris, the Chickasaw County coroner, said Hernandez Perez’s body has been transported back to Mexico.

Mississippi Development Authority Director Bill Cork is stepping down after nearly three years leading the state’s economic development agency. 

Gov. Tate Reeves called Cork’s sudden departure a “retirement.”

During Cork’s tenure, Mississippi has seen over $65 billion in investments, mostly from data centers, and the creation of 23,000 jobs. Over Reeves’ two terms as governor, the state has seen a total of $85 billion in investment.

Paul Jerrod “P.J.” Waldrop, the current deputy director and chief operating officer of MDA, will lead the agency. He is the fourth person Reeves has appointed to the job. Reeves has struggled over two terms to keep a permanent, Senate-confirmed director in the position. Cork was his longest serving director by a matter of months.

Unemployment, labor force participation decline

In August, Mississippi’s unemployment rate continued to decline from 3.6% in July to 3.4%. It was one of eight states that saw significant decreases in the unemployment rate, with the rest remaining relatively unchanged. 

But Mississippi’s labor force participation also dropped.

The total number of non-farm employees was up slightly month over month and year over year. However, the size of the overall civilian labor force and labor force participation rate decreased. The seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate dropped to 54.7% down from 55.7% a year before, the lowest rate since April 2024. Mississippi’s labor force participation rate is second-lowest in the country, behind West Virginia.

Unemployment was down in the Gulfport-Biloxi, Hattiesburg and Jackson Metro areas month over month and year over year at 3%, 2.9% and 3% respectively, accompanied by decreases in the civilian labor force in all three areas.

Companies get low marks on clean energy

A Sierra Club report gave Entergy Mississippi an “F” and Mississippi Power a “C” for their transition to clean energy sources. Both grades referenced increasing demand partly driven by the state’s economic growth, led by data centers, and customer demand.

Both Entergy and Mississippi Power’s parent companies are seeing exceptional growth thanks to data centers. Southern Power Company, of which Mississippi Power is a subsidiary, saw 49% higher usage year to date according to its recent earnings presentation. 

At the recent meeting of the Southern States Energy Board, Gov. Reeves said that the state is taking an all-of-the-above approach and not relying on any single source of energy.

Other news

• A developer is looking to put a $6-billion data center campus on 800 acres in Jefferson Davis County. Eagle Rock Partners held a public meeting this week to talk to residents and answer community questions. The company said construction is set to begin in 2027. 
• The Joint Legislative Budget Committee is meeting on Thursday and Friday. Senators and representatives are hearing from 11 agencies on their proposed spending as work begins on a budget for the 2028 fiscal year. The final budget will be determined during the upcoming legislative session. So far, the Office of Workforce Development requested a $7 million budget, up by $3 million to meet the “urgent” need for trained workers, and the Health Department requested level funding for the upcoming fiscal year.
• The median sale price of a home in Mississippi is one of the lowest in the nation, around $260,000, compared to over $380,000 nationally. However, the state has not been immune to increasing housing prices. Housing prices in the Golden Triangle are up by nearly $70,000 based on data from the Commercial Dispatch. 
• The Ole Miss and LSU game brought in nearly $109 million for Oxford alone, according to Visit Oxford. A typical home game brings in $30 million to $70 million. 
• The state will use $8.5 million in federal money to increase its short-term workforce training and support its implementation of Workforce Pell Grants at community colleges. The federal financial aid program was expanded last year to cover program costs for eligible short-term workforce education. It’s part of Mississippi’s larger push to encourage Mississippians to pursue jobs that are currently in high demand.
• Natchez officials are evaluating a potential data center at the old International Paper mill.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he plans to nominate Jackson-based labor and employment lawyer Todd Butler to a Mississippi-based opening on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

“The wonderful people of the Great State of Mississippi (one of my favorites!), and the rest of the Fifth Circuit, can count on Todd to protect the Constitution and the Rule of Law,” Trump said on social media. 

Butler has spent the last 17 years practicing with the Jackson-based law firm Phelps Dunbar, according to his LinkedIn profile, and he previously clerked for Judge Leslie Southwick, whose seat he would fill if confirmed. Southwick recently took senior status. 

Butler graduated from Mississippi State University and Mississippi College (now Mississippi Christian University) School of Law, and both Mississippi’s Republican U.S. senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, support him. 

“Todd Butler is an excellent pick for the federal bench,” the two senators said in a joint statement. “He believes in interpreting the law as it is written, pursuant to the text and original meaning of the Constitution — exactly the quality that should characterize a jurist.”  

The Senate Judiciary Committee will likely schedule a confirmation hearing for Butler in the coming months. The court hears federal appeals from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Mississippi death row inmate Devin Allen Bennett is expected to appeal his 2003 conviction for his infant son’s death linked to shaken baby syndrome. 

On Wednesday, the Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously allowed him to go to the Rankin County Circuit Court to seek post-conviction relief based on what the court considered newly discovered evidence: recently undermined expert testimony in a California case. 

The evidence is laid out in a Sept. 14 letter from Bennett’s attorney Krissy Nobile from the state Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel. She wrote to the court about post-conviction relief granted for Jason Harley Moore, a California man who was convicted in 2014 for the death of his infant daughter from abusive head trauma, the updated term for shaken baby syndrome. 

“Mr. Moore, like Devin Bennett, was accused of child abuse after he sought medical care for his child,” Nobile wrote. “In both cases, the child’s condition followed a short fall from a bed, which was the explanation both men provided, and which treating doctors rejected as insufficient to explain the child’s condition.” 

In August 2000, Bennett was watching his son, Brandon, who Bennett said fell from a carseat and onto the floor, hitting his head and side, according to court records. The child initially appeared stable, his father said, but his breathing later changed and stopped. Bennett told local law enforcement he tried to wake up Brandon and then took him to a hospital. From there, Brandon was transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he died. 

Dr. Bonnie Woodall, the pediatrician working in the UMMC emergency room, evaluated Brandon’s injuries and ordered tests. She consulted the chairman of neurosurgery, Dr. Andrew Parent, who also examined the infant. They diagnosed the infant with shaken infant syndrome.

Both doctors testified as medical experts at Bennett’s 2003 trial. Prosecutors argued he shook Brandon and threw him on the ground, relying on shaken baby syndrome and the autopsy performed by the late pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne and Dr. Michael West, a Hattiesburg dentist who billed himself as a bite mark expert.

Hayne and West have been involved in a number of cases that have been overturned, including other shaken baby syndrome cases and ones with bite mark evidence.   

Woodall testified that Brandon’s injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome, but also that bruises on the infant could have been from resuscitation and transportation. Similarly, Parent testified that shaken baby syndrome was the most likely diagnosis based on retinal hemorrhages he found in Brandon, a majority of which are associated with shaken baby syndrome. 

Following testimony, Bennett was convicted and sentenced to death in February 2003. 

In appeals and post-conviction, his attorneys have argued that Bennett is “factually innocent” based on changes in scientific consensus about shaken baby syndrome and short fall injuries. 

In Moore’s case in California, the court found testimony of the prosecution’s medical witnesses has since been “undermined by scientific developments since trial and, thus, constitutes false evidence[.]” In early September, the California appeals court sent his case back to the trial court for the prosecution to decide whether to re-try or release him. 

That case cites how in 2020, the American Academy of Pediatrics acknowledged that “short falls can be fatal and that there is no pattern of injury unique to” abusive head trauma. 

Nobile listed Moore’s case as one of nine in recent years “emphasizing the scientific unreliability of the (shaken baby syndrome) hypothesis.” 

Others in Mississippi have been convicted of murder in shaken baby syndrome deaths, including Tasha Shelby, who is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of her fiance’s son, and Jeffrey Havard, sentenced to death and later resentenced to life without parole for the death of his girlfriend’s infant daughter. Some of their attorneys have raised issues with the science – or lack thereof – behind the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. 

Generally, there are time limits to appealing a conviction and people can’t file additional motions raising claims that have already been decided or brought up. The state Supreme Court found exceptions in Bennett’s case when it allowed him to seek post-conviction relief in the trial court.

PEARL RIVER COUNTY — Pearl River County is working to install license plate readers at four locations along Interstate 59 and other highways amid questions about privacy and how long the data they collect will be kept. 

County bid documents identify four initial camera locations, with the potential to add stationary units as needed. 

The planned locations are: 

— Interstate 59 northbound and southbound near Exit 1 at the south end of the county 

—  Highway 26 and Highway 43, known as Crossroads, at the west end of the county 

— Interstate 59 at the mile marker 39.5 overpass at the north end of the county 

— Highway 53 at Barth Road at the east end of the county 

A memorandum of understanding between the Mississippi Transportation Commission and the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Office addresses placing license plate readers and other law enforcement devices on the right-of-way. 

The county sought bids for the system in June before awarding the contract to Flock Safety in August. The county has not announced a specific date for the cameras to become fully operational. 

Pearl River County Administrator Adrian Lumpkin said the sheriff’s office requested the system and believes the cameras can help investigators locate vehicles connected to criminal investigations. 

“It’s an investigative tool, and I think it can be very useful and help the sheriff’s (office) solve crimes,” Lumpkin said. “We recovered a vehicle not too long ago in Louisiana through the use of ALPR that was stolen from Pearl River County.” 

Lumpkin said he hopes the sheriff’s office uses the technology responsibly and remains aware of potential security risks. 

“I will not tell you that it can’t be misused, but that’s not the camera’s fault. That’s the person that doesn’t need to be in law enforcement,” Lumpkin said. “As long as it’s used properly and we have the safeguards on it, I think it can be successful.” 

“If any one of our officers was ever caught misusing it, I think they should be fired and out of law enforcement,” he said. 

The county’s specific policies for data retention, officer access, searches and auditing were not available in the records obtained by RHCJC News.

RHCJC News contacted Sheriff David Allison for information about the cameras, including the planned retention period, access policies and whether information collected by the cameras could be shared with other law enforcement agencies. Allison did not respond to requests for comment. 

Flock Safety’s current policy says its license plate reader system can collect license plate and vehicle images, vehicle characteristics, the plate number, state, date, time and camera location. The company says the system does not collect drivers’ identities, facial recognition data or biometric data. 

Poplarville resident Benjamin Neff attended Board of Supervisors meetings after learning about the proposed cameras.

“I do not feel like we’ve been given enough information on how the system will work,” Neff said. “I want our security concerns to be addressed. I want the abuse concerns addressed.” 

Neff also questioned how long information collected by the cameras would be retained and who would have access to it. 

Flock Safety recommends a seven-day retention period for new law enforcement customers, but the company says communities can establish different retention periods based on their policies and applicable law. 

The company’s policy also prohibits users from disseminating license plate reader data to people who are not authorized to access or use it. The company says searches and system use are subject to security and auditing controls.

Concerns about Flock cameras extend beyond Pearl River County as other Mississippi communities adopt similar systems. 

Ocean Springs resident Seth Cooke said the spread of Flock cameras across Mississippi prompted him to start a petition calling for the technology to be banned statewide. 

Cooke said he believes the technology raises concerns about the Fourth Amendment and government overreach. 

“Truthfully, we’re already tracked enough as it is. I don’t think something this advanced should be used,” Cooke said. 

Cooke said he is also concerned about who can access information collected by the cameras. His petition has over 200 signatures, and he hopes to use that support to raise the issue with local officials and eventually state lawmakers. 

“Now, while it’s still almost in its infancy stages here, action needs to be taken,” Cooke said. 

Nearly all schoolchildren in at least 30 states can apply for a new federal scholarship next year to help pay for private school, homeschooling and other educational expenses, according to regulations proposed Thursday by the Trump administration.

The first national school choice scholarship program, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, will launch Jan. 1, establishing a taxpayer-funded incentive for families to choose private or homeschooling in participating states. Taxpayers who donate to an organization passing out the scholarships will receive a federal tax credit, a perk expected to further fuel the conservative school choice movement.

About 96% of children in those states should be eligible, according to the department. Children attending public schools could use the scholarships for extra learning expenses.

School choice scholarships have been available for decades in conservative-led states and throughout the South, giving individual students taxpayer-funded grants ranging from a couple thousand dollars to more than $30,000 a year. In places where they are available to all students regardless of income, such as Florida and Arizona, the majority of students using the money were already in private or home school or were from affluent neighborhoods, an analysis by The Associated Press showed.

The federal program departs from most state programs by not forcing students to leave public school to qualify for the scholarship. Public school students could use the money for tutoring or special education therapies, although the Republican administration has not provided specific criteria for eligible expenses yet.

Regulators say they have set up the program in a way that will make it easier for poor students to apply, proposing to let students use proof of participation in a government assistance program in lieu of providing income documentation. Foster children would not have to provide any income verification when they apply, officials said.

Experiences with school choice scholarships in other states have shown barriers to using the programs go beyond paperwork hurdles. Many families often do not know scholarship programs exist. Federal officials have not said how they would tell taxpayers and students about the scholarships.

How the scholarship and tax credit will work

Taxpayers will have the chance to donate to a scholarship program in a participating state, even if they do not live there, starting Jan. 1. Individuals can donate up to $1,700 and receive a federal tax credit for the same amount in exchange. Federal officials propose a couple filing jointly could give as much as double that.

Scholarship organizations in each state would decide how much to grant to each child who applies, depending on available funds and student need. Children could qualify if they are in elementary through high school and their families earn up to three times the area’s median income.

Scholarship recipients could use their funding to pay for religious or private school tuition, homeschooling costs, tutoring and special education therapies, books, computers and other expenses connected to enrollment or attendance, according to officials at the Treasury Department.

At least 30 states have opted in and more may sign up

States could not turn to laws or regulations to narrow the uses for the scholarships or the type of organization that can grant them, federal officials said.

But states can choose whether to participate in to the program.

According to the most recent Treasury Department list, as of mid-September these states are in for 2027: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Governors from Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Oregon have said their states will not join, with some arguing these programs divert resources from public schools.

More than two dozen states have yet to say what they will do. In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has been supportive and the state is expected to sign up.

Governors deciding whether to participate face many competing objectives and interests. There is the opportunity to bring significant new education money to students who need extra support, such as tutoring or extra speech therapy that their public school does not provide. At the same time, large scholarship programs in states such as Florida and Arizona have accelerated a growing enrollment crisis in public schools.

Even so, the federal program is expected to bring taxpayer money for private school tuition to several states that have yet to embrace vouchers or education savings accounts.

In just a few years, after donations from taxpayers pick up, the IRS and the Treasury Department predict the program will direct nearly $26 billion into as many 2.2 million scholarships each year.

The federal tax-credit scholarship program was signed into law last year by President Donald Trump as his signature tax breaks and spending cuts bill. The public has 60 days to comment on the Treasury Department’s proposed regulations.

U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell’s campaign on Tuesday rejected an accusation that it had violated campaign finance law and asked the Federal Election Commission to close a complaint that Carl Boyanton, an independent opponent, had filed against Ezell. 

The Ezell campaign also filed a complaint with the FEC against Boyanton and accused him of making a false complaint about Republican Ezell. 

Josh Gregory, an Ezell campaign spokesperson, said in a statement that Boyanton is wrong if he believes he “can pull a political stunt using false and reckless allegations against” Ezell. 

“Today, we filed a report to the FEC’s Office of the Inspector General detailing Mr. Boyanton’s lies, and we are very confident that they will handle this matter,” Gregory said. 

Boyanton told Mississippi Today that he stands by his FEC complaint, believes Ezell violated federal campaign finance law, and called on the FEC to investigate Ezell’s campaign finances. 

“If it smells dirty. It is dirty,” Boyanton said. 

Boyantan filed a complaint that centered on a joint fundraising committee called the Ezell Victory Fund, which Ezell’s campaign formed with the National Republican Congressional Committee and his leadership PAC, New Sheriff PAC.

The complaint alleges that seven members of the Chouest family, which owns shipbuilding company Edison Chouest Offshore, in August of 2025 each gave $3,500 to Ezell’s primary campaign and $3,500 to his general election campaign, maxing out the $7,000-per-cycle limit an individual can give directly to a candidate, totaling $49,000. 

The family also donated another $150,000 to the joint fundraising committee: $10,000 each from five family members and $50,000 each from Gary and Carolyn Chouest.

The complaint argues that when the Ezell Victory Fund later transferred $47,625 of that money to Ezell’s campaign committee on Sept. 18, 2025, it amounted to funneling additional Chouest family money to the campaign beyond federal limits. 

Federal rules require a joint fundraising committee to divide each donor’s contribution among its participating committees so that no individual’s total contribution to any one committee, whether given directly or through a joint account, exceeds that donor’s limit for that committee.

Spencer Ritchie, an attorney representing the Ezell campaign, wrote to the FEC that Boyanton mistakenly double-counted money that had already been reported when it was contributed to the joint fundraising committee on Aug. 26, and then again when part of it was transferred to the campaign on Sept. 18.

Ezell, Boyanton and Democratic nominee Jeffrey Hulum will compete against each other during the general election on Nov. 3.

Mississippians can register to vote in the Nov. 3 federal midterm election by mail, at their local county circuit clerk’s offices or Department of Public Safety offices through Monday.

The midterm elections will determine control of both chambers of Congress. In Mississippi, a U.S. Senate race tops the ticket, which includes contested general elections for all four of the state’s U.S. House districts.

For those wishing to register in person at their county circuit clerk’s office, those offices will also be open on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.

All mail-in voter registration applications must be postmarked on or before Oct. 5. Mail-in applications are available here, or from a local circuit clerk’s office. The addresses for the offices of local circuit clerks can be found on the Secretary of state’s county election information page.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today’s midterm voter guide: Who’s running? What are the issues? When and how do I vote?

For those who are already registered to vote, in-person and mail-in absentee ballots are now available in circuit clerks’ offices. To learn more about the updated procedure for in-person absentee voting, click here.

On election day, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. All Mississippi voters are required to present a photo ID. Those who do not present an acceptable form of photo ID are entitled to cast an affidavit ballot, but must then present an ID in their local circuit clerk’s office within five business days. For voter ID information or help obtaining valid identification, call 1-800-829-6786.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey will campaign for Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom on Friday, according to the Colom campaign. 

The Colom campaign said Booker will kick off his fall travel ahead of the midterms in Mississippi to support Colom and will join Colom in Gulfport on Friday to launch a “Canvas with Colom” event with campaign volunteers. 

“I am proud that Democrats across the country are supporting this campaign because they know that Mississippi is in play, and that Mississippi matters,” Colom said in a statement. “I look forward to campaigning with Senator Booker as we energize voters who are ready for change.”

This will be the third time that Booker has visited Mississippi to try to help oust Republican Sen. Hyde-Smith and flip her seat to Democratic. The New Jersey senator visited Mississippi in 2018 twice to campaign for Democratic candidate Mike Espy. 

U.S. senators from both political parties have visited the Magnolia State this year to stump for Hyde-Smith and Colom. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana have visited to support Hyde-Smith, while Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware visited to campaign with Colom. 

Colom and Hyde-Smith will compete with independent candidate Ty Pinkins in the general election on Nov. 3. 

Correction 10/1/2026: The story has been updated to correct the timeframe of Booker’s previous campaigning in Mississippi.

A Jackson municipal judge ruled Wednesday that probable cause exists to send to the grand jury the case against Jarques Ratliff in the killing of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old mother who was found hanging in west Jackson.

Media organizations, including the Clarion Ledger, successfully argued to keep the preliminary hearing open to the public. Judge Lilli Evans Bass had considered closing the hearing in the ongoing investigation.

Wednesday’s proceeding was a continuation of an earlier hearing in which Detective Samuel Dukes of the Jackson Police Department testified that Fortune’s hanging was staged, and she was killed over stolen drugs. 

The discovery of Fortune hanging from a tree on Aug. 3 received national attention because of Mississippi’s history of racist violence. She was Black, as are Ratliff and two other men charged with murder in her killing.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Dukes referred to a witness by the pseudonym Jane Doe to protect her identity during the investigation. He said Doe saw Fortune leave with Ratliff and two other men in a car. When the group returned, Fortune was not with them.

Dukes said the witness also told police that Ratliff said Fortune “fought hard.”

The detective testified that when Fortune’s body was found, she was wearing men’s shoes. The shoes are being tested to determine whether they belonged to Ratliff, 51. 

Dukes also revealed that documents with Fortune’s name on them were found in Ratliff’s closet, and video footage exists of Fortune before her death.

The judge’s Wednesday ruling means a Hinds County grand jury will determine whether there is enough evidence for Ratliff to be placed on trial on a murder charge.

Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, traveled from Kentucky to Mississippi with her husband to attend court proceedings. 

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, she said she is grateful the proceeding remained open. She also does not believe Fortune stole any drugs.

“Everyone knows that she did not steal,” Spivey said, “that she would hustle and do whatever she needed to do to get money for food, clothes, whatever she needed, or she would call and ask for money.”

Toney Baldwin, Ratliff’s attorney, also spoke to the media.

“We all want to get to the truth, and I think once we get to the truth, my client will be exonerated,” he said.

Ratliff is the first person arrested and charged with murder in Fortune’s death. Earnest Lloyd Jr., 25, and Eric Derrell Clark, 45 have also been charged, and more arrests are expected, police officials have said.

Clark’s bond was set at $5 million. Lloyd and Ratliff were denied bond.

JPD Police Chief RaShall Brackney said Monday that all three suspects had a “known association” with Fortune. 

At Clark’s initial appearance, Jackson Municipal Court Judge Jeffery Reynolds called the staged hanging “an extremely heinous act” that “invoked the terrible history of our state.”