When violent deaths occur, local law enforcement officials often say the crimes aren’t random, and that the suspects and victims knew each other. 

The numbers from 2017 reflect that fact.

Of the 10 violent death investigations in Lauderdale County and Meridian last year, eight involved a victim and a suspect who were acquainted, while while only two cases, both armed robberies, occurred between strangers. Four other cases, outlined at the end of this report, involve violent deaths where no charges were filed.  

In many cases, disputes between two people became heated, progressing to gun violence, according to law enforcement officials. 

“The majority of (our homicides) involved individuals who knew each other or had a relationship of some sort,” Meridian Police Chief Benny Dubose said. “Some decided to settle whatever dispute they had in a violent manner.”

Dubose described many of the deaths stemming from disputes as “senseless.”

“Afterward, the suspect who commits the crime may have regrets but by then it’s too late,” Dubose said. “They didn’t think before they reacted.”

A long wait for indictments

Even after police identify and arrest an individual, resolving the case can take time. Some cases may be ready to present before a grand jury for indictment, the next step in the legal process, but are delayed by scheduling from the district attorney’s office or slow turnaround from the state crime lab. 

The district attorney’s office controls the scheduling of cases after a preliminary hearing and determines when cases are ready to present to a grand jury, often waiting until they have sufficient forensic evidence, according to District Attorney Bilbo Mitchell. That wait often causes delays scheduling trials.

“Whose frustration is greater? The family (of the victim) is frustrated. Law enforcement is frustrated. The crime lab is frustrated and the legislature is frustrated,” Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said.

“The family is frustrated because they haven’t been served justice, in their eyes. Law enforcement is frustrated because they’re caught between the family and the legal system. The crime lab is frustrated because they don’t have enough resources to expedite the process. And the legislature is frustrated because they don’t have enough money to fund all of their responsibilities.”

These slowly grinding gears of the legal system mean that only two of the 2017 homicide cases have led to indictments. Both could go to trial as early  as this month. 

The case against Ladarius Naylor, accused of killing his estranged wife, is one of those cases and one of four death investigations that involved former (or current) romantic partners or a parent and child.

Ariana Bianca Naylor, 22, died New Year’s Day 2017 and was found inside a burning 2015 Dodge Charger with throat lacerations in Kemper County. Investigators found Ladarius Naylor, 26, at the scene with self-inflicted throat lacerations. 

According to investigators, Naylor said he went to his wife’s home to try to get her back and saw some messages on her cell phone. He confronted her and punched her before she told him, ‘We’re separated. This has nothing to do with you,’ according to Kemper County Sheriff James Moore, who initiated the investigation. 

Naylor apparently stabbed Ariana Naylor with a butcher knife, Moore said in January of 2017. 

Moore’s department charged Ladarius Naylor with murder and tampering with evidence for the vehicle fire. Later, investigators determined that Ariana Naylor died in Meridian and the case was transfered to the Meridian Police Department. 

A Lauderdale County grand jury indicted Ladarius Naylor in June of 2017.

The second case from 2017 that has resulted in an indictment involves the death of David Lee Ragon. 

Dan Curtis Barret, 48, allegedly entered Ragon’s residence on Feb. 28 with a gun and started shooting, killing Ragon. Witnesses in the home told police that Barret arrived intoxicated and upset.

According to Ragon’s twin sister, Shelly Ragon Patterson, the men were friends. Barret is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 22. However, the case, like many others, could be delayed, police said. 

Domestic situations

On Feb. 20, Edna Deloris Durr, 65; Tomecca Leshawn Durr Pickett, 42; Kiearra Shardae Durr, 27; and Owen Ray Pickett, 5; died in their Toomsuba home and were discovered the next day during a welfare check. Deputies later arrested and charged Karon Deshawn McVay, 44, for their murders.

The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department stated early in the investigation that Tomecca Pickett and McVay had a personal relationship, adding that the situation could accurately be described as domestic violence.

According to family, Tomecca Pickett planned to leave McVay and move to Chunky with her son, Owen. 

McVay remains in custody at the Lauderdale County Detention Facility. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department said, via email, that the case hasn’t been presented to a grand jury because investigators are still waiting to receive state crime lab autopsy results.

Three-year-old Bailey Salovich died on July 16, one day after a severe beating she allegedly received from her father, Joshua Salovich, for a failed math lesson, according to testimony against the 25-year-old father presented during a preliminary hearing on July 17.

Sgt. Dareall Thompson, with the Meridian Police Department, said police brought in a specialist the determine what role, if any, the mother of Bailey Salovich had in her death. At the preliminary hearing, detectives testified that the mother told them she was in the home but didn’t hear anything. After the preliminary hearing, the mother collapsed and had to be escorted from the courtroom by paramedics.

Thompson said the case was ready to present to a grand jury but that police wanted to receive results back from the specialist.

In December, Miranda Allen, 37, died from injuries sustained in beating “so severe there was no way she could have been walking,” according to testimony during a preliminary hearing against her boyfriend, 42-year-old Michael Portis.

During the hearing, Portis denied the narrative presented by police, who said Portis beat Allen and attempted to convince other men to have sex with her.

Despite being so recent, Thompson said that police are ready to present the case to a grand jury.

Friends and associates

Other cases from 2017 involve people who knew each other, either as friends or as associates. According to police, many stemmed from disputes between two men that ended in gunfire. 

A dispute with Travis Conner, 28, allegedly led to the shooting of 46-year-old Donnikia Clark in early October, according to police. Clark died the following day from his wounds and Conner fled to Kansas, where officers from the Topeka Police Department arrested him a few days later.

Police said the case is ready to present to a grand jury, pending the scheduling of the district attorney’s office.

One man has been accused in connection with two deaths in 2017, including the death of Jeffery Pope, 25, and Demetrius Burge, 35.

According to preliminary testimony, police said Aundre Tubbs, 22, and Pope met after a New Year’s Eve party and Tubbs, who reportedly always carried a 40-caliber pistol, shot Pope.

Police provided conflicting statements from witnesses about the description of the shooter, however, and didn’t have any forensic evidence, including the 40-caliber shell casings found near Pope’s body, at the January preliminary hearing because it was still being processed at the state crime lab. Rain had also destroyed evidence at the scene.

Municipal Court Judge Robbie Jones determined that police didn’t have sufficient evidence to hold Tubbs, who police charged with murder, on bond.

Thompson said the investigation in the case is ongoing.

In late September, police accused Tubbs in the death of Burge, along with co-defendant Robert McDonald. Police said McDonald, 27, reported to police that Burge, 35, had shot him the previous week.

Police said McDonald apparently met Burge by chance in a parking lot, which led to the fatal shooting.

According to Thompson, the case is ready to present to a grand jury.

Armed robberies 

Two men died in fatal shootings in 2017 following an armed robbery, according to police. 

No suspect has been named in the death of Tony Maurice Wilson, 36, who police found dead from a gunshot wound inside a white compact car Oct. 13 on Railroad Road. Police haven’t yet released more details but detectives are actively investigating the case. 

The October death of Frank’s Drive-In owner Robert Trout also began as an armed robbery, according to police. Police charged two men and one woman in Trout’s death and the non-fatal shooting of three others as well as with the armed robbery of the bar on Fifth Street in Meridian. 

Meundre Donshay Sanders, 21; Dystiny Davis, 25; and Christopher Dewayne Sanders, 27; all face charges for capital murder, three counts of attempted murder and one count of armed robbery.

Police in Killeen, Texas arrested Meundre Sanders and Davis in late November and area law enforcement arrested Christopher Sanders on Dec. 1. The three waived their right to a preliminary hearing on Dec. 4.

Thompson said police were waiting on evidence analysis from the crime lab but planned to present the case to the next available grand jury.

No charges filed 

Four violent deaths from 2017 were not included in this count because charges have not been filed. They include the deaths of Warren Gentry, Charles Donwell, Jeremy Gabrial and John Quincy Grady. 

A grand jury issued a “no true bill” in the May 9 shooting death of Gentry, while the investigation into Donwell’s death will be presented to another grand jury. 

Donwell, 24, died on Dec. 16 after a car crash that followed an unknown dispute with a man he knew. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department hasn’t filed charges, but said it planned to present its case to the next available grand jury to determine whether to issue indictments.

Gabrial and Grady died in officer-involved deaths and their cases are being investigated by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations. 

Jeremy Gabrial, 31, died on Aug. 14 after Lauderdale County deputies responded to a disturbance call. Major John Calhoun fatally shot Gabrial after Gabrial refused to put down his weapon. A few days following the death, Sheriff Billy Sollie said deputies later realized that the weapon was a realistic looking BB or pellet gun. 

John Quincy Grady fired at a Meridian police officer on Nov. 5 after the officer attempted to intervene when Grady picked up a woman and her boyfriend and then forced the boyfriend to leave the vehicle at gunpoint. Police credited the still unnamed officer’s bulletproof vest for protecting him from two shots to the chest, though the officer’s leg and arm was grazed by bullets. 

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the agency responsible for investigating the cases, declined to release more information about the investigations in a Public Records Request filed on Dec. 6 by The Meridian Star.

The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department released Calhoun’s name but the name of the Meridian police officer involved in Grady’s death hasn’t been released.