Suspect asked if victim was dead, deputy testifies

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 25, 2004

[8/25/04]The man on trial for the 2003 homicide near Vicksburg High School had a question for the officer who pulled him over at Mission 66 and Main Street minutes after the shooting.

“Did he die?” is what Walter Jefferson asked Deputy Sheriff Todd Dykes as Dykes took him into custody, the deputy testified Tuesday.

Dykes was one in a string of seven witnesses called by Assistant District Attorney John Bullard as the state presented the first day of testimony against Jefferson, 21, of 202 Cain Ridge Road.

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Jurors selected to hear the case Monday are being sequestered and are expected to rule by Friday whether Jefferson is guilty of manslaughter, which carries a 20-year maximum term, and possession of a firearm on school property, which carries a three-year sentence.

O’Dare Lee Earl Mims, who was 20, died about 2:12 p.m. Sept. 10 after being shot once in the chest. Other witnesses said he had approached Jefferson’s car near Memorial Stadium at City Park just before being shot and that there was at least a one-year history of conflict between the two.

Walter Coleman, 20, who said he was a lifelong friend of the victim, testified he was 6 or 7 feet away from Mims when he was shot. He said Jefferson and Mims had fistfights on VHS graduation night 2002 and during season-opening football games there later that year.

The shooting happened on a Wednesday afternoon when school was in session. About 50 students were on or near the stadium parking lot where the shooting happened.

Testimony indicated Jefferson drove away after the single shot was fired. Dykes testified that he spotted a car fitting the description broadcast by police. He also said Jefferson’s question came before officers read him his rights, which include the right to remain silent.

Mims, who was a former VHS student, and Coleman, who had graduated from the school earlier in 2003, had come to the school about 2 p.m., Coleman testified.

“We were just going to see what girls were coming out,” he told Bullard.

The Vicksburg Police Department investigated the case. Its lead investigator, Lt. Billy Brown, testified about interviews he had conducted.

“I was told that Mr. Mims had a history of hunting down” Jefferson, he said.

Brown also said he was told that Mims was stronger and would beat Jefferson in a fight, and that he had been told that Jefferson had at least twice left areas where he had seen Mims in attempting to avoid contact with him.

Jefferson had also accused Mims in a burglary of Jefferson’s car that had occurred the night before the shooting, but that accusation had not been confirmed, Brown said. Jefferson’s car was one of several reported burglarized around the same time, Brown said in answering a question from Bullard.

After Jefferson was arrested, a .38-caliber pistol and a shell casing were found in his car, police Lt. Bobby Stewart testified.

Brown swabbed Jefferson’s hands using a kit designed to collect material for forensic gunshot-residue analysis, he testified.

A trace-evidence specialist from the state crime laboratory, David Whitehead, testified that samples he had received for parts of Jefferson’s hands tested positive for the residue.

The car Mims drove to the area was also searched, and a steak knife was found in its console area, Brown testified.

Witnesses who said they saw Mims just before he was shot said Mims displayed no weapon. Mims’ body was searched afterward and no weapon was found, Brown said.

Testimony was to continue today.