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Sheldon Timothy Herrington, Jr., the Ole Miss graduate charged with murdering Jimmie “Jay” Lee, was released on a $250,000 bond Thursday after his lawyer made an agreement with the Lafayette County District Attorney’s Office. 

The agreement – made without a hearing – shocked the LGBTQ+ community in Oxford who thought Herrington would stay in jail through the remainder of the court proceedings with a grand jury hearing pending early next year because he was originally denied bond.

Justice for Jay Lee, a group of students and friends of Lee’s, condemned Herrington’s release in an Instagram post and called on several public officials in Oxford – including the mayor and the chancellor of University of Mississippi – to speak out “during the scariest time in our community.” 

“They kept his possible release a secret out of fear of us protesting and advocating for Jay Lee,” the post, written in all-caps, reads. “Our biggest nightmare just came true. We warned them this would happen. Our officials should have advocated for the courts to not release Timothy.”

Herrington was arrested two weeks after Lee went missing on July 8. Police later determined that he had a sexual relationship with Lee and that his apartment was the last place Lee went. That night, a few minutes after Lee messaged that he was coming over, Herrington Googled “how long does it take to strangle someone gabby petito,” then “does pre workout boost testosterone.” 

In August, a Lafayette County Circuit Court judge denied Herrington bond on the grounds that he is a flight risk because he searched for flights from Dallas to Singapore the day before Lee went missing.

But in the agreement signed Thursday, Herrington was permitted to post bond if he agreed to wear and pay for an ankle monitor and surrender his passport to the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department. Kilpatrick agreed these conditions would “satisfactorily relieve any fears” that Herrington would flee the state before trial, according to the order. 

Earlier this week, Kilpatrick was elected the first County Court Judge in Lafayette County history following a runoff. 

Herrington’s attorney, state Rep. Kevin Horan, did not respond to a request for comment before press time; neither did a member of Herrington’s family. Ben Creekmore, the Lafayette County District Attorney, could not be reached but Action 5 News reported that he said the agreement was made in exchange for Horan dropping a petition he filed in October that claimed Herrington was being held in jail illegally. 

READ MORE: ‘A grand jury has not “failed to indict” the Ole Miss graduate charged with murder as legal filing claims

Lee’s body has been missing since he disappeared on July 8. He was last seen leaving Molly Barr Trails, a student apartment complex in Oxford, but police believe his body is somewhere between Lafayette or Grenada counties based on Herrington’s movements that day. 

According to evidence at the preliminary hearing in August, Lee had gone to Herrington’s house early in the morning on July 8, left and returned a few hours later. Later that day, Herrington drove a moving truck to his parents’ house outside of Grenada where he was seen on video footage retrieving a shovel and long handled wheelbarrow.

For members of the LGBTQ+ community across the state, Lee’s murder is emblematic of the disproportionate violence that LGBTQ+ people in Mississippi face as well as law enforcement’s routine failure to properly investigate or prosecute these cases. In Lee’s case, members of the community say that failure is evident in Herrington’s surprise release and because police have yet to find Lee’s body.

Justice for Jay Lee has been urging people to write letters on behalf of Lee to the Lafayette County Courthouse as dozens of people in Grenada, including powerful officials like the sheriff and superintendent, had advocated for Herrington’s release. 

The post ‘Our biggest nightmare just came true’: LGBTQ+ community shocked by surprise release of Ole Miss student charged with murder  appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A former corrections officer and case manager at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility have been indicted on a charge of using excessive force against a prisoner. 

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Mississippi charged officer Jessica Hill and case manager Nicole Moore with deprivation of rights of an inmate under color of law, which are acts and duties performed as part of official duty.  

On July 11, 2019 at the Pearl facility, the indictment alleges Hill struck an incarcerated person named L.C. with a pepper spray canister and punched the inmate, and Moore kicked L.C., who did not resist, resulting in bodily injury, according to court documents. 

The indictment also alleges Hill and Moore aided and abetted each other during the use of excessive force against L.C. 

Court documents did not provide a reason why force was used against L.C. 

Arrest warrants were executed for Hill and Moore Wednesday, and both had an initial appearance and arraignment at the federal courthouse in Jackson, according to court documents. 

If convicted, they could each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. 

A spokesperson from the Mississippi Department of Corrections declined to comment because the alleged incident happened under a previous administration.

The post Mississippi prison employees face federal indictment in inmate assault appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Joe Paul is being paid an annual salary of $650,000 as the 11th president of University of Southern Mississippi, according to a copy of his contract the Institutions of Higher Learning provided to Mississippi Today. 

The salary makes Paul the third-highest paid college president in Mississippi and represents a $50,000 raise over that of his predecessor, Rodney Bennett, the university’s first Black president who departed earlier this year. 

Paul’s contract, which ends on Oct. 31, 2026, shows he is making $450,000 in state funds, the same amount he was making as interim president. He is also receiving a $200,000 supplement from the University of Southern Mississippi Foundation, a decrease in the supplement the foundation paid to Bennett. 

In Mississippi, the presidents of the state’s eight public universities are permitted by the Board of Trustees to boost their taxpayer-funded salaries with private, foundation-funded dollars. They are also allowed to receive income from “outside employment” as long as they request prior approval from the board in writing. 

Other details from Paul’s nine-page contract include a hefty payout if the board terminates him in the next two years – $900,000, equal to two years’ salary. After October 2024, Paul would receive the remainder of his salary. He is also required to live on campus and was provided up to $15,000 in moving expenses to relocate, a standard benefit that other college presidents receive. 

Paul was originally supposed to lead USM in the interim as the board looked for a new president – a short-term charge that was reflected in his initial 7-month contract the board approved in executive session in June. 

At that same June meeting, the board also voted to raise the state-funded salaries of all eight college presidents. When the board voted to pay Paul $450,000, it also increased the state-funded portions of the salaries of Mark Keenum (Mississippi State University), Glenn Boyce (University of Mississippi) and Thomas Hudson (Jackson State University) to $450,000.

Though the board has in the past announced changes to presidential salaries in press releases, this information was not made publicly available until minutes of the executive session were published in August, two months after the raises were granted, because the board did not meet in July. 

Hudson, who was previously making $375,000 as president of Jackson State University, now makes $455,000 with his foundation supplement. Keenum and Boyce now make $850,000, up from $800,000 last year. 

Since 2017, IHL has sought to pay the presidents of the state’s top research universities the same state-funded amount. Due to the difference in the amount each school’s foundation can pay, historically the college presidents have been compensated in that order: UM and MSU at the top, followed by USM then JSU. 

IHL also approved across-the-board reductions in the amount that university foundations can pay presidents  – figures that vary dramatically. Keenum and Boyce are now permitted to take $400,000 from their university foundations, but Hudson can only receive $5,000, per the June meeting minutes. Previously, Hudson received a $75,000 supplement from JSU’s foundation.

The state’s two other historically Black colleges – Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University – as well as Mississippi University for Women also had their foundation supplements limited to $5,000. (The board did not approve a foundation supplement for Delta State’s interim president.) 

The state-funded salaries of Jerryl Briggs (MVSU), Nora Miller (MUW) and Felecia Nave (ASU) were increased to $300,000. 

As the board has granted raises for the university presidents, faculty and staff have barely seen their pay increase in the last decade, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. The average faculty member in Mississippi took home $65,827 in 2020, up from about $58,000 in 2012. The average staff member made $47,612 that same year, an increase of a little more than $6,000 since 2012. 

The board also approved a “retention” pay plan for Boyce at the meeting in June. If he stays on as chancellor at UM through the end of his contract in June 2024, the university foundation is now permitted to pay him a bonus up to $400,000. 

When the board granted Keenum the opportunity for a similar bonus last year, he wrote to MSU’s foundation that he would like “a majority, if not all” of the retention funds to go to student scholarships.

READ MORE: ‘Here are the salaries of every IHL college president since 2008’

The post USM’s new president making $650,000; all public college presidents saw raises this year  appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The nonprofit Leapfrog Group released its hospital safety grades for the fall of 2022, and 12 Mississippi hospitals – including the financially troubled Greenwood Leflore Hospital –  received an A rating.

The grade, which is assigned to about 3,000 general acute-care hospitals across the nation twice a year, is based on how hospitals and other health care organizations protect their patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. The score comes from hospitals’ performance on more than 30 national measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and other data.

The state’s largest hospital and only academic medical center scored a C for the fourth year in a row.

No Mississippi hospitals received an F grade, and one hospital received a D: Merit Health Biloxi. Each grade is based on hospitals’ performance in five categories: infections, problems with surgery, safety problems, practices to prevent errors, and doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

“Taken together, those performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors,” its website states.

According to the group, 250,000 people die each year from preventable errors in hospitals.

Here is the breakdown of grades for Mississippi hospitals:

The post Twelve Mississippi hospitals earn ‘A’ rating from hospital safety group appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We are now nearly half a year past the Ole Miss baseball miracle, and Tim Elko, the heart and soul of those Rebels, still struggles with processing the entire experience.

“It’s sunk in a little bit, but it’s still surreal in many ways,” Elko said in a phone conversation Thursday. “We got the championship rings a while back and that somehow made it a little more real.”

Something else has happened to make it even more real – and to bring back a flood of cherished memories. That’s the publication of two books – “Champions” and “Resilient Rebels,” which commemorate one of the most remarkable sports turn-arounds in this writer’s memory.

Elko, who wrote the foreword to “Champions,” will be featured at a book signing Saturday at Lemuria in Jackson. 

First, about the two books:

• “Champions” is a lovely coffee table book, published by Neil White’s Nautilus Publishing Company of Oxford. Much of the book is the work of photographer Joshua McCoy, who followed the Rebels throughout the season and produced some of the most compelling sports photography imaginable. White, himself the author of the remarkable memoir “Sanctuary of Outcasts” designed and edited the book, while Jeff Roberson, Mitch Praxl and Alex Sims combined to provide the text. Ole Miss baseball coach Mike Bianco wrote the introduction.
• “Resilient Rebels” is the work of Oxford writer Chase Parham and, as the subtitle suggests, details “Ole Miss baseball’s remarkable path to a national title.” In this case the adjective “remarkable” does not overstate at all. Ole Miss was the last at-large team selected for the 64-team field and then won 10 of 11 NCAA Tournament games, sweeping Oklahoma in the best of three championship series. The Rebels won 20 of their last 26 overall. Former Major League Baseball star Donnie Kessinger, a two-sport All American at Ole Miss, provides the foreword to Parham’s book.

White and Parham both will join Elko at Lemuria for Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. book signing. (Only books, no memorabilia, will be signed.)

This will not be Elko’s first experience at book signing. He was at Square Books in Oxford on Oct. 14 when the books debuted there. That was the Alabama football weekend, the same weekend the Rebels received their championship rings. You probably won’t be surprised to learn the line to get books signed that day went out the store’s doors and wrapped around much of Oxford’s Square.

“I had a blast,” Elko said. “It was just so much fun to share that experience with so many people. I couldn’t believe how long that line went.”

The signing was supposed to last two hours, White said, but went much longer. Bianco had to leave early to get to that afternoon’s fall practice. But Elko stayed until every last book was signed.

These days, Elko works out most mornings at Oxford-University Stadium with other former Rebels now in professional baseball who live in the Oxford area.  

“Just working to get stronger, trying to get better,” said the easy-going and always-friendly Elko, who last summer began his professional career in the Chicago White Sox organization, hitting five home runs in 96 at bats at the Class A level. That was after a senior season in which he hit 24 home runs and drove in 75 for the national champs.

Switching to wooden bats is a difficult adjustment for many college players-turned-pros, but the bull-strong Elko apparently made the adjustment with relative ease.

“I love the feel and the sound of a wooden bat,” Elko said. “No problems here.”

The guess here is that when you have overcome what Ole Miss baseball did during the spring of 2022, everything seems a little easier.

The post Books detail Ole Miss miracle; Elko to sign in Jackson Saturday appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A modern Mississippi take on the Christmas story.

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Mississippi can spend about $7 million a year to keep mothers and newborns healthier, or continue to spend tens of millions more dealing with the fallout of having the worst infant and maternal mortality and morbidity in the country, health experts told lawmakers Thursday.

“This reminds me of that Midas commercial: Pay me now, or pay me later,” said Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, chairman of the Senate Medicaid Committee. “The cost later is obviously significantly more. The relatively minimal amount to provide this care compared to the cost later – it’s a no brainer in my mind.”

Blackwell’s committee on Thursday heard testimony from numerous health experts on benefits of increasing the length of postpartum Medicaid health coverage for mothers from 60 days to a year – as most states have done or are considering. Postpartum coverage has been extended for mothers in all states during the federal pandemic health emergency but will end when the national emergency is ended, which is expected to happen soon.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has vowed the Senate in the 2023 legislative session will again push for extending postpartum coverage. Early this year, Speaker Philip Gunn and the House leadership blocked three Senate attempts to extend the coverage. Gov. Tate Reeves has been noncommittal on the issue. But all three leaders have noted a need for policies to help new and expecting mothers and newborns after a ban on abortions is expected to add at least 5,000 more births in Mississippi each year.

In Mississippi with high rates of poverty and uninsured people, about 65% of babies are born to mothers on Medicaid. Because of lag times in being approved for coverage and the 60-day cutoff, mothers often do not receive the prenatal and postpartum care they need, care that could prevent many major problems.

Dr. Anita Henderson, a pediatrician and president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, provided some somber statistics and costs to lawmakers Thursday.

Mississippi’s pregnancy-related maternal mortality ratio is 33.2 deaths per 100,000 live births, nearly double the national average of 17.3 deaths. Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate, preterm birth rate and low birthweight rate in the U.S. One-in-seven babies born here are preterm. These numbers are dated by a few years, and rates have gotten worse, lawmakers and experts said Thursday.

Henderson said the hospital cost for a healthy baby born full term runs about $5,000 to $6,000. But for extremely premature babies, that cost averages $600,000 and can easily top $1 million – costs frequently borne by state Medicaid.

“If we can prevent just a few of those premature births, we would be able to pay for this, and also help 65% of moms in Mississippi,” Henderson said.

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said he believes extending the coverage would not only pay for itself but be “budget positive” for the state, with savings from healthier mothers and babies with preventive and follow-up care, and federal Medicaid covering most of the cost.

“The rest of the states have adopted 12 month postpartum or Medicaid expansion,” Edney said. “We are one of two states in the nation that has adopted neither. We are kind of isolated in our current policy. What I would beg us to consider is the fact it makes much more economic sense to let Medicaid pay for this rather than the state having to pay for it – either state agencies such as the health department paying, or hospitals paying for it with uncompensated care.”

But Edney advised lawmakers to, “Please divorce the Medicaid expansion debate from the postpartum benefits debate. We can have the Medicaid expansion debate at another time.”

Expanding Medicaid to cover the working poor in Mississippi per the federal Affordable Care Act has been the source of a decade of partisan debate in Mississippi, with GOP leaders blocking it. Blackwell opposes Medicaid expansion, but along with other Senate Republicans said extending postpartum coverage to mothers already on Medicaid for their pregnancies is not the same as the broader expansion.

Wil Ervin, deputy administrator for health policy for Mississippi Medicaid, on Thursday told lawmakers his agency is not making a recommendation to lawmakers for or against extending postpartum coverage.

“But if you do, we would ask that you do so quickly and decisively, and give the division enough time to successfully implement the changes,” Ervin said.

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, in questions to several presenters Thursday indicated Gov. Reeves could promptly extend the coverage without Legislative action next year.

“Isn’t it true the executive branch today could make that happen without us waiting for the other chamber? This afternoon, he could sign a piece of paper and solve these problems. But if that doesn’t happen, I think you’ll see a continued commitment from the Senate.”

The post Extending postpartum coverage to Mississippi mothers ‘a no brainer,’ key lawmaker says appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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PASCAGOULA — A bulk-carry ship packed with 47,000 tons of Mississippi-made wood pellets readied to take off for Japan Wednesday as state leaders gathered to celebrate its upcoming sendoff. 

The pellets, which are designed to be burned in place of coal, arrived at the Port of Pascagoula by train from George County. Enviva, the wood-pellet company, is the port’s newest partner and first started shipping pellets out in July. 

Enviva CEO Thomas Meth was on the Gulf Coast Wednesday to celebrate the massive $90 million project and the company’s growing Mississippi footprint. But in addition to the fanfare is the real possibility Meth could soon have to navigate a halt to his company’s usual supply chain between its 10 southeastern factories.

Rail workers have threatened to move ahead with a strike after failed union negotiations with freight companies. The unions are calling for paid sick days and other quality of life improvements.  

“I will tell you that it’s not the right time to have a railroad strike,” Meth said following the terminal’s ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday. “And we’re optimistic it can be avoided.” 

Experts have said a strike would shut down nearly a third of the country’s freight systems, adding to congestion and causing a domino effect even in areas – such as Mississippi – where unions aren’t as active. 

President Joe Biden is asking Congress to step in to block the strike – the consequences of which could cripple the economy. In response, the House passed a bill Wednesday that would force a contract agreement. Biden is now asking the Senate to act quickly.

“Without the certainty of a final vote to avoid a shutdown this week, railroads will begin to halt the movement of critical materials like chemicals to clean our drinking water as soon as this weekend,” the president said in a statement. 

As far as Mississippi businesses go, Gov. Tate Reeves told a Mississippi Today reporter Wednesday that most companies in the state that rely on railways have contingency plans in place should there be an extensive strike. 

“This particular company,” Reeves said, referring to Enviva, “and many others, for instance, have facilities that can utilize the The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to move product.” 

Enviva can also use trucks to transfer the pellets to the port – something it plans to do once its next factory is operating in Bond.

The company says it is the leading wood-pellet producer in the world. The massive white domes now at the Port of Pascagoula can hold up to 90,000 metric tons of wood pellets and are operated by about 30 local employees.

Reeves has worked closely with Enviva as it grows its Mississippi footprint. The state gave the company $4 million in grants to open its Bond facility. 

“We’re talking about decades of economic activity here in the State of Mississippi,” Meth said. “The world is hungry for wood-based biomass from Mississippi, so it will be a fantastic investment for the people of Mississippi – not only for our employees but the whole supply chain that we’re touching.” 

The post With rail strike looming, Enviva wood pellet company hosts ribbon cutting in Pascagoula appeared first on Mississippi Today.

It’s high school football championship in Mississippi. The Rock in Hattiesburg will be the site of six championship games, including Saturday night’s 6A showdown of Brandon against Starkville. Starkville head coach Chris Jones, the former Jackson State standout and state championship coach at Kemper County, talks about the state championship, as well as his alma mater in the SWAC Championship, and his former Starkville quarterback Luke Altmeyer entering the NCAA portal.

Stream all episodes here.

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