OurTupelo

RIDGELAND – Two child-sized bikes stood propped at the end of a driveway next to a house in a mobile home community last week. A poinsettia garland twined around a staircase bannister, and a red and gold Christmas wreath adorned the facade. A grey and white cat mewed at the front door, asking to be let in. No one answered a knock at the door. 

Federal immigration enforcement detained the family that lived at the house in Harbor Pines Mobile Home Community — a mother, father, and at least two young children — on Dec. 4, a neighbor told Mississippi Today. 

A video circulated among neighbors that morning showed several people, including one wearing a law enforcement vest, approaching the home. The video, along with accounts of families detained by immigration enforcement shared on social media in the area, has kindled fear among some members of the community. 

Rick McKay, who has lived in Harbor Pines for about 20 years, said he wasn’t aware of the arrests but that the neighborhood has been quiet lately, possibly due to a fear of intensified immigration enforcement. 

“It might be a little quiet, but it’s winter,” he said. 

Fear and uncertainty are spreading through immigrant communities across Mississippi as reports emerge of immigration agents detaining individuals and families. Although this month’s arrests have been more sporadic than those in nearby Louisiana — where federal agents launched the latest immigration crackdown Dec. 3 — their effects have swiftly rippled throughout Mississippi.

The number of people detained in Mississippi is unknown publicly. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment Friday. And, it’s unclear how or if the recent arrests made in Mississippi are connected to the operation based in New Orleans, dubbed “Catahoula Crunch.” 

Tracking arrests of people swept up by federal immigration agents has proven difficult for advocates and families because the agencies directing the crackdown have offered little information about the operation. Nor have local and state law enforcement, even though some have agreements to cooperate with ICE.

Catahoula Crunch, also referred to as Operation Swamp Sweep in planning documents, is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s third major immigration enforcement action this year, following Midway Blitz in Chicago and November’s Charlotte’s Web in Charlotte, North Carolina. Early reports showed the campaign aimed to arrest roughly 5,000 people across Louisiana and southeastern Mississippi.

Federal agents have made more than 250 arrests across southeast Louisiana this month, according to The Associated Press. 

DHS said the sweep in New Orleans continues its efforts to arrest “rapists, thieves, gang members, human smugglers, and abusers,” though an AP report identified criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the operation’s first two days. 

Some Mississippi leaders, including Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, have embraced the operation, while immigrant communities and advocates said they are bracing themselves.

“We support the president’s efforts in trying to get law and order in our state and in our country,” Reeves said to WAPT Nov. 21.

Lea Campbell, an Ocean Springs resident and member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mutual Aid Collective, said the community advocacy group has seen an increased presence of federal immigration officers on the Coast.

“We kind of are preparing for the worst,” Campell said.

‘Something better for their daughters’

Debbie Pierce is one of five women who founded Adelante, a Jackson-based group that provides support to the immigrant community. In recent weeks, she said members have learned that several people they were assisting were detained by ICE, leaving behind empty cars. 

The group is also supporting a Brandon woman caring for three children younger than 3 after immigration agents arrested their mother at the end of November while she was on her way to work. ICE records show the woman, Ana Lucas-Pedro, is detained at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana. 

Kitzia, an Adelante member who asked to be identified by her first name, said she has taken donations of food and diapers to the neighbor and children. 

“I don’t think she was prepared in any way, shape or form,” Kitzia said of the mother. She said the same of the stand-in caretaker, who is now burdened with caring for three children in addition to her own.

In Ridgeland, a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being targeted by law enforcement, identified one person arrested at Harbor Pines Mobile Home Park as Rolando Quintero de la Cruz. ICE records show he was born in Mexico and is being held at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana. 

His wife, Jennifer Luis-Hernandez is being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, according to ICE records. Mississippi Today was not able to locate the children, and immigration detention records are not available for minors.  

ICE did not respond to questions about how many people, or if any children, were detained in the arrest. 

The South Texas Family Residential Center was built in 2014 to house families, but President Joe Biden’s administration halted the practice of family detention, and the facility held only adults until it closed in 2024. It reopened in March, retrofitted to house children again. 

The family moved to the U.S. a few years ago to improve their quality of life and “look for something better for their daughters,” Maricruz Nostroza Dionisio, a family friend, said in Spanish in a message to Mississippi Today. 

Alex Gibert, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, said the process for bringing any child, regardless of immigration status, into state custody remains the same. 

Concern for a child’s safety would need to first be reported to a statewide hotline, which would lead the department to conduct an investigation, she said in a Friday statement. From there, the agency can make recommendations for the youth court, and a judge can issue a custody order. 

How sightings affect the community

Immigration agents in unmarked vehicles and vests have been spotted from the Jackson metro area to the Coast, community advocates say. 

Campbell said people have seen an uptick of Customs and Border Protection vans and trucks, especially by exits along Interstate 10, and in downtown Biloxi and Gulfport. 

Pierce, of Adelente, said agents have been seen in Canton, Madison and Pelahatchie in Madison and Rankin counties in central Mississippi. 

Jeremy Litton, an immigration attorney, said ICE or CBP agents continue to be seen in Forest, which is an hour east of Jackson, weeks after two back-to-back sightings of officers near businesses that serve the Latino community.  

The increased presence of federal immigration officials, paired with news of detainments, has led to some immigrants staying home and not attending school or church, advocates said. 

Michael Oropeza, executive director of El Pueblo, a nonprofit serving low-income immigrant communities in Mississippi, said the organization cancelled its annual Hispanic festival fundraiser and stopped holding in-person education events out of fear for the community. 

News of immigration raids ripples beyond the place where enforcement activity occurs, she said.  

“When there’s a raid in one town, fear is going to spread to others in real time,” Oropeza said. 

Advocates respond with aid, information

Advocates and community groups say they are helping immigrants in a variety of ways: bringing groceries to them so they don’t have to go to the store, offering assistance with transportation and connecting them to legal services. 

Pierce, of Adelante, is helping to tutor the children of immigrants in the Jackson area. She hopes the church they are using can continue to be a safe space for them. 

Campbell said volunteers for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mutual Aid Collective take students home from a Biloxi afterschool program, so parents do not have to risk contact with immigration agents. 

The Gulf Coast group also collects information about the presence of immigration agents in public spaces and shares the reports through social media.

Community groups are also offering resources and education for the greater community, such as “know your rights” training. 

The presence of federal immigration officers in Mississippi creates a climate of fear that undermines immigrants’ sense of safety, even among those not directly being targeted, Oropeza said. 

“It just breaks down institutional trust with schools and hospitals and even local law enforcement, which is scary,” she said. 

If you have a news tip about the immigration enforcement presence in the state, please contact Mississippi Today on Signal at +1-601-281-8952. You can also email us at  info@mississippitoday.org or tips@mississippitoday.org.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the appeal of a Black death row inmate from Mississippi whose case was handled by a prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons.

A federal judge had previously overturned the murder conviction of the inmate, Terry Pitchford, but an appeals court reversed that ruling.

The justices stepped into the case involving the same prosecutor, former District Attorney Doug Evans, who was at the center of a high court case that resulted in a 2019 decision that overturned the death sentence and conviction of Curtis Flowers.

The case involving Pitchford will be argued in the spring.

U.S District Judge Michael P. Mills held that the judge who oversaw Pitchford’s trial didn’t give the man’s lawyer enough chance to argue that the prosecution was improperly dismissing Black jurors.

Mills wrote that his ruling was partially motivated by Evans’ actions in prior cases.

Pitchford was sentenced to death for his role in the 2004 killing of Reuben Britt, the owner of the Crossroads Grocery, just outside Grenada in northern Mississippi.

In Pitchford’s case, judges and lawyers whittled down the original jury pool of 61 white and 35 Black members to a pool with 36 white and five Black members, in part because so many Black jurors objected to sentencing Pitchford to death. Then prosecutors struck four more Black jurors, leaving only one Black person on the final jury.

The Supreme Court tried to stamp out discrimination in the composition of juries in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986. The court ruled then that jurors couldn’t be excused from service because of their race and set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the race-neutral explanations by prosecutors.

When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Flowers, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that Evans had engaged in a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.”

Flowers was tried six times in the shooting deaths of four people. He was released from prison in 2019 and the state dropped the charges against him the following year, after Evans turned the case over to state officials.

Evans resigned in mid-2023, after more than 30 years on the job and six months before the end of the four-year term he was then serving.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals has ordered a new murder trial for Tameshia Shelton, a 47-year-old mother of four who has long insisted on her innocence in the death of her sister’s boyfriend.

Judges vacated her conviction and ordered the new trial. The state attorney general’s office has not said whether it plans to appeal the ruling to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

“We are hopeful that the attorney general’s office will accept the Court of Appeals’ decision as final,” Shelton’s attorney, Sandra Levick, said. “After 10 long years in prison, it is time for Ms. Shelton, who did nothing wrong, to come home.  The charges should be dismissed.  If there is a new trial, the jury should hear all of the evidence, including the evidence of Ms. Shelton’s innocence that the original jury never heard.”

In 2024, Clay County Circuit Judge James Kitchens Jr. rejected Shelton’s request for a new trial, despite the state pathologist reversing his original ruling and saying the death was more likely a suicide.

The appeals court concluded Kitchens erred in denying Shelton’s request for a new trial. The court cited the pathologist’s reversal and the failure of defense lawyer Rod Ray to introduce the victim’s apparent suicide note into evidence at the murder trial.

Mississippi Innocence Project lawyers wrote that if it “offends the 8th and 14th Amendments to execute a person who could prove his actual innocence, then it offends the Constitution as well to consign her to prison for the remainder of her natural life for a crime she did not commit.” 

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Shelton’s sister, Shenikia. “Finally, I feel like our voice is getting heard and they’re seeing that an injustice was done. We’re extremely happy, and we’ve been thanking God ever since.”

She said her sister is “very happy and very excited” at the news.

In 2015, a Clay County jury convicted Shelton of murder in the 2009 shooting death of her sister’s 21-year-old boyfriend, Danelle Young. Shelton, who was sentenced to life, won’t be eligible for parole until 2043.

The prosecution never presented a motive for why Shelton would have killed Young.

In April 2022, Kitchens presided over the last of three days of hearings over whether Shelton deserved a new trial. Those hearings revealed evidence never shown to the jury, including an apparent suicide note Young wrote.

In 2009, forensic pathologist Dr. Liam Funte ruled Young’s death a homicide, basing that decision on the trajectory of the bullet from the front of the chest to the back “without significant deviation to left or right.”

Under questioning byLevick, Funte said at the time he had not seen that in a suicide, but he said he has seen such cases since and was “leaning toward suicide.”

In reversing the original ruling, he cited scientific studies on bullet trajectories in suicides and homicides. In one study, more than 36% of suicides had bullet trajectories that did not deviate to the left or right.

After a verbal argument in which Shelton’s sister said she told Young that she didn’t want to live with him, Young walked to Shelton’s trailer.

Shelton told authorities she was already in bed with her infant daughter when Young knocked on the window of the trailer. She went to the front door, and she said he told her that he only needed one bullet to kill a raccoon.

She said she replied that he might need more than one bullet and loaded her small .22 pistol and gave it to him.

After she heard a shot and he failed to return, she said she went outside, found him collapsed on the gravel driveway and called 911.

In the autopsy report, Funte concluded Young had been shot in the chest and that the gun was fired from less than an inch away.

Both he and another forensic pathologist, Dr. Randall Frost, demonstrated at hearings how the small gun could fire a self-inflicted shot, following the same path the bullet traveled through Young’s body.

Funte said he would now rule the death “undetermined.”

Kitchens never addressed the apparent suicide note in his 15-page decision. In that note, Young wrote, “I have no life without her (Shelton’s sister Ketina). … These are my last words. … Tell (your daughter) Treasure about me one day. Bye. Bye.”

At the hearing, Funte testified that the note would have been relevant to determining the manner of death.

“Considering the potentially exculpatory nature of this letter, we find it difficult to conclude that its absence did not prejudice Shelton’s defense,” Judge C.J. Barnes wrote for the appeals court in its 7-3 decision.

In his dissent, Judge John Emfinger wrote that a study provided by Shelton’s lawyers actually supports Funte’s original opinion of a homicide. That study showed that 82.4% of suicides were shots to the head and 16.3% were shots to the chest.

“So, according to that study, looking at those numbers, if it was a suicide, it would have been much more likely to be a shot to the head than to the chest, correct?” Special Assistant Attorney General Jackie Bost II asked Funte at the hearing.

“Yes,” Funte replied. “According to the study.”

This is why the trial judge determined that Funte’s change of opinion and the evidence used to support the changed opinion didn’t support reversal of the case, Emfinger wrote.

Updated 12/15/25: This story has been updated with comments from Shelton’s sister and attorney.

Whether you’ve just started your journey to financial health or are well on your way to reaching your financial goals, you’ve likely heard about the critical role investing plays in financial health.

While this is sound advice, you may have lingering questions about how to construct an investment portfolio or whether certain times are more opportune for investing. You might also be curious about whether you should focus on specific types of investments, such as stocks or bonds, or explore real estate and other commodities.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. While some strategies can benefit nearly all investors, your investment choices should align with your future financial plans – both short-term and long-term.

Here are four key strategies for building your investment portfolio and how to get started:

Learn what makes up an investment portfolio

Begin by familiarizing yourself with what an investment portfolio entails. A portfolio is a collection of investments that often includes an array of asset classes such as equities, or stocks, representing ownership stakes in corporations; fixed income securities including bonds, and tangible commodities like precious metals or agricultural products. Investors often view their investments as a whole through their portfolio to track their progress. encompassing a diverse

Assess your risk tolerance

Investment strategies are not universal. If your goal is to minimize risk and preserve your principal investment, consider a conservative portfolio with assets like bonds, which can be less prone to significant losses. Although a conservative portfolio could yield lower returns, it may be suitable if you’re nearing retirement and will need your funds soon—or if you simply prefer to minimize risk.

Conversely, a high-growth portfolio involves investing in higher-risk assets that can yield more substantial gains or losses. While it’s often recommended that younger people invest more aggressively since they have more time to recover from potential losses, it’s more about how soon you hope to achieve your investment goals.

You might opt for a balanced approach, diversifying your investments across multiple asset classes.

Diversify your portfolio

Plan to distribute your investments across different types of securities. For example, avoid concentrating all your money in a single stock, as a downturn in that stock could jeopardize your entire portfolio.

It’s also recommended not to put your money solely in one asset class (for example, just stocks) – instead, it’s generally better to spread your investments across different types of securities with different levels of risk.

This approach can help protect your money. For instance, you have money invested in several asset classes like bonds, stocks and commodities, and the bond market falls, only part of your investment portfolio will be affected.

Think long-term, no matter your goals

Regardless of strategy and allocation, it’s generally advisable to maintain a long-term perspective, as this allows for the compounding of returns and the ability to weather short-term market fluctuations. For investors, maintaining a long-term mindset can pave the way for success. Although markets can always have a bad day, week, month or even year, history suggests investors are less likely to experience losses over longer periods—especially in a diversified portfolio.

Reacting with fear during market downturns and withdrawing your investments could mean missing out on potential rebounds, which is why investors should focus on time in the market, not timing the market. Over the last 20 years, seven of the 10 best days occurred within 15 days of the 10 worst days.

The bottom line

With an understanding of what it takes to build your portfolio, now is the time to get started! You can open a brokerage account online at any time and you can connect with a financial advisor in person to learn more about investing products, so you can build the right portfolio for your financial needs and goals.

Correction: An earlier version of this post had an incorrect audio file.

Ridgeland Police Chief Brian Myers and New Albany Fire Chief Mark Whiteside said pending changes the Legislature made to the state employee retirement system will make it even harder to hire and retain first responders. They want the Legislature to revisit an overhaul of the Public Employee Retirement System set to take effect in March for those who serve in high-stress, low paying and dangerous first-responder jobs.

The state government of Mississippi is packed with agencies and commissions that are governed by independent boards and not by the governor.

President Donald Trump argues such independent boards on the federal level violate the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court recently heard arguments from the Trump administration on the issue, and a ruling next year in favor of the president would be far reaching and upend decades of judicial precedence.

Not long ago, a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court abolishing the independent or regulatory boards would have been far fetched, but no longer thanks to the current Supreme Court’s willingness to acquiesce to Trump’s whims.

Is the same possible in Mississippi?

Could Gov. Tate Reeves or some future governor challenge the constitutionality of the independent agencies in this state?

Perhaps. 

After all, anybody can file a lawsuit. And it often appears that whatever Trump does, Reeves and many Mississippi politicians want to emulate. But there are some distinct differences between the powers of the governor under the Mississippi Constitution and the powers of the president under the United States Constitution.

Granted, the U.S. Constitution and Mississippi Constitution are similar in terms of the president and the governor both commanding the military, having broad pardon authority and being able to request reports from agencies.

Both the U.S. Congress and the Mississippi Legislature have created agencies with governing board members appointed by either the governor or the president. Often, the board members serve staggered terms, preventing one chief executive officer from appointing all the members.

The purpose of the independent boards – especially on the national level – is to take politics out of the governance, such as with the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Reserve, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Science Board and a host of others.

Trump wants to be able to fire the board members if he does not like their policies.

Mississippi also has multiple instances of the Legislature creating a governance system where appointed board members hire the executive director and set the policies of the agency. The Department of Mental Health, the Department of Health and the Community College Board are examples where, for whatever reason, the Legislature opted to create an agency with the executive director reporting to the board members instead of the governor.

But there are differences between the Mississippi system and the national system.

Some of the independent agencies are created by the Mississippi Constitution (the people) and not by the Legislature.

The Board of Education, arguably one of the state’s more important boards, is created constitutionally with the members appointed by a combination of the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. The state’s eight public universities are governed by a constitutionally created Board of Trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning. The board members serve staggered terms appointed by governors. In some rare instances, one governor elected to two terms could have all the appointments on the IHL Board.

Then, of course, there are statewide elected officials who oversee their agencies. Most of those state positions – the secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney general – are created by the Constitution and do not answer to the governor. But the insurance commissioner and the commissioner of agriculture and commerce are not constitutional officers. They are legislatively created.

It is not certain the U.S. Supreme Court will grant Trump’s wishes and abolish the independent boards, but many judicial experts believe it is possible if not likely.

But what is certain is that Mississippi’s Republican leadership follows the lead of Trump.

Still, it is difficult to see a scenario where a Mississippi governor would take the issue to court.

First of all, it is highly unlikely that the Mississippi Supreme Court would find a board or agency created by the Mississippi Constitution to be unconstitutional. That would be a difficult position for a judge to take.

In addition, a governor who has a strong relationship with lawmakers might have better luck changing the governance of those independent agencies that are not in the Mississippi Constitution by going to the Mississippi Legislature instead of petitioning the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But in the current crazy political climate, it seems anything is possible.

The Mississippi Mass Choir is honoring the Mississippi roots of its members with a statewide tour.

The “Sound of Church” tour began in Vicksburg on Nov. 23. Services across the state are scheduled through Dec. 21.

Jerry Mannery, the choir’s executive director, said that the tour is an opportunity to spread the Gospel to the communities where its members grew up and lived. 

“We understand that we are first and foremost ambassadors for Christ, and secondly we are ambassadors for the state of Mississippi as well,” he said.

Lillian Lilly of Belhaven is a lead singer, a soprano and one of the original members. She said she felt the Holy Spirit directing her to join the choir.

Lilly said the choir is like a big extended family. She is one of several members whose biological relatives – her son, daughter and granddaughter – are also in the choir.

“It’s a real spiritual experience to sing in church,” she said.

“We’ve had a wonderful time.”

Yolanda Clay-Moore is the choir’s marketing director and soprano singer. She has performed with the choir since 2012. She moved to Brandon when she was 10, and the Mississippi Mass Choir’s music was a major part of her church experience growing up. 

Clay-Moore considers it an honor to be part of the choir and still considers herself a fan.

When asked what she hopes audiences will take away from the services, she said, “The number one goal is always to bring someone to Christ, or to reunite them with Christ.” 

Gospel singer Frank Williams founded the Mississippi Mass Choir in 1988. Today, the choir has 214 members, has released 13 albums and has numerous achievements, including four Grammy nominations and a Stellar Gospel Music Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mannery has been the choir’s executive director since Williams’ death in 1993. 

“Right now this is a very difficult time to live in, and people are really under a lot of pressure, and people are bound by a lot of things that are outside of their control,” Mannery said. 

“But we know that when the spirit of the Lord shows up through our songs, that it sets people free,” he added.

The remaining Sound of Church tour dates currently scheduled across the state are Dec. 14 at Jerusalem Temple Church in Philadelphia. and Dec. 21 at White Hill MB Church in Tupelo.

A sex discrimination lawsuit against the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees will proceed with the board and each member named as defendants, a federal appeals court has ruled. 

Debra Mays-Jackson, former vice president and chief of staff at Jackson State University, alleges that despite being qualified to lead the historically Black university, she was passed over in 2023 in favor of a man with less experience. IHL trustees had claimed qualified immunity, a legal protection from liability for government officials, in an effort to dismiss the case. 

In its ruling Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a U.S. district court’s previous decision that Mays-Jackson had adequately pleaded an equal protection violation. The federal appeals court ruling affirms that the lawsuit can continue, and not whether any discrimination occurred. 

John Sewell, a spokesman for the IHL board, said trustees do not comment on pending litigation. Lisa Ross, Mays-Jackson’s attorney, told Mississippi Today she had no further comment. 

For now, Mays-Jackson’s case will return to the federal district court, where it will proceed discovery, summary judgement or trial. The 5th Circuit judges will not weigh in on the final ruling or decision of the case. 

In November 2023, Ross filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of the U.S. Court District for Mississippi. It was the same day the IHL board hired Marcus Thompson, then an IHL deputy commissioner, to lead JSU. Thompson was not one of 79 applications for the role, according to Mays-Jackson’s lawsuit. 

Mays-Jackson’s lawsuit, which represents one side of a legal argument, also accuses individual IHL board members of denying her an interview and voting to appoint Thompson. The federal court ruled those allegations, if true, are enough to show possible constitutional violations by each person named in the lawsuit. 

Kenneth Stokes is preoccupied with the concept of “dope boys.”

It’s one of the longtime Jackson city councilman’s go-to insults, hurled toward people he blames for the city’s woes. “Dope boys are controlling this city,” he said during a December council meeting.

He has recently zeroed in on the owner of a food truck that secured a business license with the city last year and operates on an empty lot near Stokes’ home in central Jackson’s Georgetown neighborhood.

The blue trailer housing Georgetown Grub is one of few places in the area to grab a bite. It serves wings, quesadillas, cheesesteaks and fried broccoli across from an abandoned Jasco gas station. 

Stokes alleges it serves dope. 

“The dope boys have found a way to get the planning department to help give permission and permits for them to have food trucks,” he said from behind the council dais. “They’re not selling food, but they’re selling dope.”

This, in part, is what inspired Stokes’ new ordinance, enacted Dec. 2, banning city employees from maintaining any kind of business or personal relationship with anyone “known to be engaged in illegal drug activity.” 

The new law perplexed some Jacksonians, leaving them to wonder what conspiracies are afoot at City Hall. But for residents in Georgetown, it’s clear the origin of Stokes’ decree is more personal – considering the owner of the supposed drug-deal-on-wheels is the councilman’s own nephew, Daniel Cooper.

An HVAC technician who manages several rental homes in the neighborhood, Cooper said he opened the mobile restaurant – which, indeed, sells food – last year after cleaning up an abandoned lot owned by his late grandfather. 

Cooper, who now lives in Clinton with his wife and teenage son, said he wanted to help revitalize the neighborhood where he grew up. But ever since he returned to Georgetown, Cooper said he’s dealt with harassment from the councilman. Mississippi Today found no Jackson drug sale charges in Cooper’s history. 

“He thinks he can’t be touched. He thinks that everybody sells dope,” Cooper said of Stokes. “But he met his match with me because I’m not scared to fight back, because I know I’m not doing nothing illegal.”

“I’m not going to let a lie run me from that lot and diminish my father and my grandfather’s legacy,” Cooper said.

Not only does Stokes say the food truck is a dope operation, he also claims it has no authority to operate there on a major thoroughfare at the intersection of Woodrow Wilson and Ludlow avenues. That’s because of its complicated ownership status: The lot is heirs property, meaning its owner did not leave a will when he died. 

Several people have a potential stake in the property, including Cooper’s father and, since his wife died, Stokes and their children.

The city’s longest serving councilmember elected in 1989, Stokes has taken exceptional steps to target Cooper’s business, repeatedly calling the cops, complaining to city business departments, blocking the entrance of the lot with his own truck and now using it to justify his nebulous ordinance.

The ordinance, which was not reviewed by the city’s legal office before passage, requires employees who know of colleagues with relationships to drug dealers to “immediately” disclose the information to the city attorney. 

Earlier this week, City Attorney Drew Martin said no one, including Stokes, has made such a report.

There’s little dispute that Georgetown, a historically Black neighborhood in a census tract with a poverty rate of over 30%, experiences crime because of the presence of narcotics. 

“He does have concerns that there are folks in that part of town who are engaged in illegal activity, and I share his concerns,” Pieter Teeuwissen, the city’s chief administrative officer and a former Hinds County judge, said of Stokes. “I can’t say I share those concerns about these individuals.” 

The neighborhood is also home to elderly and working class people who live in colorful, well-kept homes, enjoy fresh produce from a community garden and generally love their community.

But Stokes and one of his neighbors and allies, Geneva Johnson, are adamant that Georgetown is overridden with dope dealers, who they say congregate at the barber shop across the street from the food truck and, before it closed, the Jasco at the same intersection. Stokes takes credit for shuttering the gas station. 

Johnson said she’s experienced multiple burglaries, and that despite her numerous calls, police have neglected to address the dope problem. She estimates drug dealers live in 13 out of 24 houses on her block. This activity is one reason they allege Cooper must be involved with drugs.

“If they were not involved with drugs, why would they locate there, in a drug haven?” Stokes said.

Ten years ago, police raided the building housing the barbershop, finding $6,000 worth of methamphetamine. Its owner Shawn Morrow was arrested, but he said the drugs were found in a separate unit from his shop, and his guilty plea was deferred, meaning the court dismissed the charges after he completed three years of probation. 

In the last two years, police have recorded two calls at the address, both for “suspicious circumstances,” according to a JPD call log.

Morrow denied having any involvement in drugs, but he wasn’t surprised by the accusation, which he said is a common refrain from Stokes. Morrow told Mississippi Today that Stokes has run off all Black businesses in the area and has failed to do anything to build up the community. 

Stokes is known for cruising the neighborhood in his white Chevy Suburban, scowling, several residents told Mississippi Today.

Johnson similarly keeps a look out. When she sees Daniel Cooper in the neighborhood, she alleges his conduct matches that of the other dealers she’s aware of in the area.

“It’s obvious that they’re doing something illegal because the cars come and go,” Johnson said, adding that people in the neighborhood frequently approach Cooper. “Who walks away with their hand closed up? Nobody.”

Resident Norma Michael, the Georgetown Community Neighborhood Association president and founder of the “Sharing is Caring” Neighborhood Block Garden, said she’s disappointed by the claims, for the message they send about her community. She told Mississippi Today that no one who attends the association’s meetings has complained about drug dealing in the neighborhood. 

Michael said it seems like Stokes’ is on a “witch hunt” because nearly every issue he has raised recently about the neighborhood seems to trace back to Cooper. 

“He has an obsession about it, and I can’t understand that,” she said. “Here’s a man trying to do something about the neighborhood. It’s no drugs, it’s no people hanging around (the food truck) drinking or smoking or things like that. It was a good thing to me.” 

Cooper and his father, Roy Byram Cooper, argue their efforts have reduced crime in the neighborhood. Vagrants had taken up residence in an abandoned office building on their family lot before they demolished it. They said a house across the street was a high-traffic area with a frequent police presence until Daniel Cooper bought and renovated it. A WLBT news report even highlighted their progress in a recent feature. 

“If you had any evidence for the things you’re saying and accusing us, my son, of doing, then you should present it and we can move forward from that,” Roy Byram Cooper told Mississippi Today. “He’s not giving us anything to defend. He’s just making accusations because of his position.”

Gabrielle Cooper, Daniel’s sister, said Stokes is using his power as a city official to harass her brother, turning what is a family matter into a public issue. 

“The council might just ignore him,” she said. “But there are people who are listening, and it’s your responsibility to say something regardless of if you feel like he’s just talking.” 

A family dispute

Stokes’ screed against Daniel Cooper also deals with the ownership status of the property where Georgetown Grub resides.

The parcel has been in the Cooper family name for decades. Daniel Cooper’s grandfather, Roy Cooper, repaired air-conditioning units and owned a two-story building that housed several family businesses – a beauty salon, an ice cream parlor and a brass exchange company. 

Daniel Cooper’s father, Roy Byram Cooper, also went into the HVAC trade and helped his father maintain the property. Now 71, Roy Byram Cooper told Mississippi Today he takes pride in working with his hands, one time writing his name into sidewalk concrete he poured outside the building. 

“The other kids, they had their own careers and other things they were doing,” Roy Byram Cooper said of his siblings. “See, Daddy and I were blue collar.”

But after Roy Cooper died in 2012, the building fell into disrepair and the ownership of the lot into limbo. He has many heirs, but a court would need to establish the shares to which they’re entitled, and that hasn’t happened yet. 

Stokes told Mississippi Today during the reporting of this story that he was working with an attorney to initiate that process, but the Coopers’ attorney beat him to it, filing a petition Thursday to open the estate.

Still, the councilman has gone around boasting that he owns the property. 

“I’ll tell you this, if Mr. Cooper owned it, I own it,” Stokes said recently, taunting a few of Cooper’s friends who were using the lot to pass out food the day before Thanksgiving. 

“Go to law school,” Stokes said when pressed for an explanation before driving away, according to a video recording.

Roy Bryam Cooper says he has never gotten along with Stokes. The councilman says the same, calling his brother-in-law a “bad apple” and alleging he’s a dope dealer, too. 

But Stokes wasn’t acting out a vendetta until after Cooper-Stokes died in 2023, the brother-in-law said.

“If he wasn’t a councilman, it wouldn’t be no problem,” Roy Bryam Cooper said. “But because of him being a councilman, he knows people downtown. So he’s tried every avenue he can to try to shut it down.”

The Coopers also suspect that Stokes, whose family owns properties throughout the area, is out for a landgrab. 

For Stokes, some bitterness comes from his claim that he took out a loan years ago to pay the unpaid taxes on the property – at the request of his wife – so the Cooper family wouldn’t lose it to a tax sale. 

But he also says he doesn’t want the property. Rather, it’s the alleged drug activity – on property bearing his wife’s family name – that makes him so intent on shutting the food truck down.

“If people in these neighborhoods know that this is drug-related and everybody in these neighborhoods know that was my wife’s father’s property, you don’t think they would associate my wife’s good name with the negative activity taking place?” Stokes told Mississippi Today. 

The Cooper family hasn’t collectively decided the future of their lot, hence the temporary restaurant. Daniel Cooper said they are waiting to see how the neighborhood develops. 

But Stokes’ allegations about his nephew’s conduct extend beyond the heirs property to just about every effort Daniel Cooper said he’s made to improve the community.

Daniel Cooper and his wife began buying property in Georgetown a decade ago. He said he uses one of the homes as a makeshift office and storage for maintenance supplies to take care of his rentals. 

He said he’s tried to bring positivity in other ways, too. Cooper and his friends took a small tractor to a block of nearby Crawford Street, a mostly wooded area, to rid the street of debris and trash. Volunteers use the Cooper lot to distribute toys and back-to-school supplies for young people in the neighborhood.

Stokes has referenced each of these endeavors, alleging the address of Cooper’s home office is a drug spot, that his nephew is recruiting young people in the neighborhood to deal drugs in exchange for bicycles and that his cleanup efforts are strictly a performance.

“We got to stop them from participating in cleanups, ‘cause they trying to clean their image,” Stokes said during a Nov. 4 council meeting. “If there’s going to be cleanups, I have an ordinance to come. It must be approved by the mayor or the CAO to make sure that the wrong element is not involved.”

Marshaling city resources 

Stokes’ efforts to expose the food truck began the very day his nephew placed the trailer on the lot last year, Daniel Cooper said.

Stokes began by claiming the business, co-owned by Daniel Cooper and his father, does not have permission to be there. He alleged Roy Byram Cooper fraudulently signed city paperwork using his deceased father’s name.

In fact, the lease agreement, obtained by Mississippi Today, was signed “Roy Cooper” by Roy Byram Cooper, who shares a name with his late father. 

While Stokes has failed to make his case to the city, he has repeatedly made this forgery allegation.

“I never heard of a dead person giving permission for people to use his property,” Stokes said at an Oct. 7 council meeting. 

Stokes also insisted to Mississippi Today that the Coopers acquired the food truck used from a “dope man that’s already in jail,” but the Coopers provided a check and receipt showing they purchased the trailer new from a manufacturer in Texas.

Roy Byram Cooper said he tried to ignore his brother-in-law’s antics. Over the last year, police have visited the food truck, “in droves,” Daniel Cooper said. When it came time to renew the business license this fall, he said the city planning department’s response was sluggish.

The Coopers eventually pushed back. In August, their attorney, John Hall, sent a letter to the city attorney and planning and development department noting his clients had faced roadblocks from the city despite satisfying its permitting and licensing requirements. 

“It has come to our attention that this inference stems from the actions of a member of the Jackson City Council who is acting under the color of his authority and law in a manner that exceeds his proper jurisdiction and violates my clients’ rights to due process and equal treatment under the law,” Hall wrote. 

Hall received no response, and Stokes did not stop. 

In response to Stokes’ complaints, Teeuwissen said he paid a visit to Georgetown Grub in mid-October. On a warm Friday afternoon, he sat in his car across the street and observed two people coming and going. One bought what appeared to be a drink and another seemed to buy food. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

When he reviewed the business file, it didn’t take long for Teewuissen to realize Stokes had a familial connection to the property. But he said he found no reason for the city to reject the business renewal.

“The I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed,” Teeuwissen told Mississippi Today.

While the city was still contemplating the renewal, an unusual series of events transpired.

The mysterious Impala

First, a man, unrelated to anyone in this saga, was driving down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive days before Thanksgiving when his car engine died. He wrote his phone number and a message saying he’d be back, and then left that piece of paper on the driver’s window after pushing the broken-down Chevy Impala into an empty lot.

The lot belonged to Stokes. The councilman then hired a wrecker to tow the car blocks away, next to the food truck.

Hours later, volunteers with a group called Organized Gentlemen arrived at the Cooper lot for a Thanksgiving food drive and encountered the Impala. 

As the group of men, local law students and a judge dished plates of turkey, mac and cheese, and green beans, Stokes appeared. The councilman summoned the police to meet him and asked an officer to run the plates to see if the car was stolen. 

The confrontation put a damper on what had been a joyous event and made the people there to receive food feel uneasy, said Perry Thomas, a member of Organized Gentlemen.

“You could see their face change,” he said.

Thomas, wearing blue food-safe gloves, approached Stokes to inquire about the gray Impala and why Stokes had called the cops, according to a video recording. The councilman sat on the hood of another broken down car, a vintage Mercedes that belonged to Cooper’s grandfather, and answered by repeating: “FBI. FBI. FBI.” 

Police found the Impala was not stolen. Stokes told Mississippi Today he had the car towed because he was attempting to do gravel work on property where the car was left as part of his effort to build a museum for his late wife. 

Cooper said he believes Stokes was attempting to harass, or worse, entrap him. 

The following Monday, when Cooper’s cook arrived to open up the truck for the day, Stokes had maneuvered his SUV to block the lot’s entrance on Ludlow Avenue. 

Cooper, exasperated, called the cops. As he began to explain the problem, the arriving officer interjected, “I already know. We’ve been dealing with this for a while,” according to a recording obtained by Mississippi Today.

The officer told Stokes he couldn’t block the property because Cooper possessed all the proper paperwork. He would know: “We’ve had several officers to come out here and they’ve did several reports,” the officer said.

“Y’all have to work this out a better way than this,” he added. “Because this is going to cause somebody to get hurt.” 

Stokes’ antics may seem petty, but Cooper said he’s afraid of what might happen if someone takes his uncle seriously. Stokes is a city councilman who appears on the news, after all. 

If an idea that Cooper’s food truck is full of drugs prevails, Cooper said it’s not hard to imagine someone trying to rob his business. The same goes for his nearby office. Or what if the man who owned the Impala had spotted it on Cooper’s lot and gotten angry?

“It has you paranoid at all times, thinking that somebody might believe this junk,” Cooper said. “I just have to hope nothing that he’s trying to conspire to do works.”

Slang in city code

The clerk of council first read aloud Stokes’ “dope dealer” ordinance during the council meeting Nov. 18. Attendees laughed, but the other council members had no comment, and the meeting proceeded to other items. 

When Stokes brought the measure to a vote Dec. 2, he explained that in addition to problems in his neighborhood, his ordinance was also a nod to a recent FBI sting involving Mississippi Delta sheriffs, as well as a federal investigation that ensnared Jackson’s former mayor, a former Jackson council member and the Hinds County district attorney. 

The Jackson case doesn’t pertain to drugs, rather a development proposal, but District Attorney Jody Owens was quoted in the 2024 indictment as saying, “We can take dope boy money… but I need to clean it and spread it.”

After Stokes’ spiel, his council colleagues raised concerns: Should city employees shun family members they suspect of selling drugs? What if someone was convicted years ago and has reformed? How would the ordinance be enforced? 

“If you believe this city is that unsafe, we need to have a task force or something in place to do something with safety and security,” Ward 2 Councilwoman Tina Clay said after introducing an amendment to replace the term “dope” with “drug,” arguing city code should not contain slang. 

Her amendment failed, but two others passed: Only drug activity within the last year would count, and the ordinance would not violate or impose on federal law. The ordinance passed with all but Clay voting yes. 

Not long after, Stokes spotted Cooper and his friend, Jeremy Harris, in the hallway through the glass of the chamber doors. The men had hoped to hear what Stokes was saying about them. Stokes left the meeting and summoned a Jackson Police Department assistant chief to deal with the men.

Out in the hallway, Harris asked Stokes if it’s illegal to attend a public meeting, to which Stokes responds: “It’s against the law to be a dope boy,” according to a video recording.

“I’m not a dope boy,” Harris told him. “Just ‘cause you said don’t mean it’s true.” 

The officer asked the pair to leave City Hall, and they didn’t put up a fight, Cooper said. Stokes moseyed back to his leather seat behind the dais. 

“I left the council chambers ‘cause the dope boys had showed up,” he announced, adding that he’d given Cooper’s office address to the sheriff, FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.