Three men plead guilty in revised plea bargain

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 1, 2003

[3/29/03]Three people originally charged with armed robbery who became the center of a controversy involving District Attorney Gil Martin and Vicksburg Police Chief Tommy Moffett entered guilty pleas and were sentenced Friday.

In late February, Warren County Circuit Judge Frank Vollor prepared to accept guilty pleas from three defendants indicted on armed robbery charges. He halted the proceeding when Moffett appeared in court and objected to the plea bargain worked out with the defendants by Martin’s office. That agreement essentially would have put the defendants on probation and only exposed them to five years in prison if they violated their parole.

Martin said in February a Taser, a device that fires needles attached to wire and designed to deliver an electrical shock to the target, was determined not to be a deadly weapon and the appropriate charge was robbery instead of the more serious armed robbery.

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Moffett was quoted as saying if such a light sentence was all that was offered, the case should proceed to trial and let a jury decide.

“That’s the system. Let’s use the system,” he said.

At the time, the defendants were identified as Chloronda Evans, 32, Baker, La., Lafane Demont Mixon, 26, 608 Ridgeway Drive, and Anthony Lee Hill, 21, 950 Hope St.

In the revised bargain in which Evans, Mixon and Hill entered guilty pleas to robbery charges, each was given a five-year suspended sentence and five years supervised probation. They were also ordered to pay $2,000 each to the victim in restitution, to pay $275 each in court costs and ordered to have no further contact with the victim.

Martin said the $6,000 in restitution to the victim included what was taken from him and an additional sum for medical expenses.

In addition, Vollor ordered Evans to pay $541.84 and Mixon to pay $1,937.49 in transportation costs to the Vicksburg Police Department.

“The victim was present at the sentencing and was in agreement with the recommendations of the district attorney’s office,” Martin said. “Vicksburg Police Chief Moffett withdrew his objection to the plea.”

Martin also said the recommendation was essentially the same one offered in February with the addition of the restitution to the police department.

“The whole thing, all along, was what the victim wanted,” Martin said, adding that the main idea of the new arrangement was to get restitution to the police department for the cost of returning two of the defendants to Vicksburg.

“I personally spoke with the victim and also had a dialog with Mr. Martin and (Assistant District Attorney John) Bullard concerning the case and my intentions all along were for us to be able to work together,” Moffett said. “We haven’t been doing that in the past, I had attempted to do that since coming here and it just hasn’t been working out. Now we are working like we should.”

“I respect their position, I respect their authority. The only thing we were asking is they respect us,” Moffett concluded.

Martin agreed there has been improvement in the relationship between his office and the police department.

“The chief and I are working on things,” Martin said. “Things are getting better.”