Brown charged with attempted murder, Livingston delays leaving New Mexico

Published 10:29 am Wednesday, March 23, 2016

A Vicksburg man accused of trying to kill a man and stealing his vehicle had his bail set at $2 million in his initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Christopher Brown, 25, 10085 Oak Ridge Road, was charged with attempted murder and carjacking of John Thomas, 52, Vicksburg police Capt. Sandra Williams said.

Judge Toni Terrett set bail for Brown, who asked for a court appointed attorney, at $2 million. Brown was on probation with the Mississippi Department of Corrections at the time of the incident that led to Tuesday’s hearing.

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“You have violated the terms of your probation and you will have to answer for that as well,” Terrett said to Brown in the courtroom at the police department.

She said he would remain in the Warren County Jail until he appears in Circuit Court.

Brown waived extradition and was brought back to Warren County from New Mexico and placed in the Warren County Jail Monday. Livingston refused to sign a wavier of extradition and at this time remains in New Mexico.

“He’s just prolonging the inevitable,” Williams said.

Thomas is still in critical condition at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He was found shot and lying facedown in the parking lot of Blackburn Motors on North Frontage Road around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, March 6, by a police officer on patrol in the area.

Nearly a week later on Saturday, March 12, Brown and Christopher Livingston, 23, were stopped by an officer in Las Cruces, New Mexico for driving a vehicle without a license plate. It was then discovered that the 2014 silver Honda Accord the men were in belonged to Thomas.

Livingston was caught following a foot pursuit after he jumped out of the vehicle, according to information from the sheriff’s department. When arrested, Livingston initially gave authorities another name.

He is charged in New Mexico with resisting or obstructing, concealing identity, possession of methamphetamine, possession of paraphernalia and receiving/transfer of a stolen vehicle. Brown faces no charges in New Mexico.

Brown and Livingston escaped from a work detail while assigned to the Mississippi Department of Corrections’ Hinds County Restitution Center in early March.

Brown was convicted of felony shoplifting in 2014, and received five years’ probation. Livingston was convicted of malicious mischief in 2015 and was sentenced to two years with three years’ probation.