From staff reports

The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand an order that former Warren County Chancellor Ceola James of Vicksburg violated Mississippi rules of conduct that bar a former judge from representing a party in a case over which she previously presided.

James had asked the nation’s high court to hear an appeal of the public reprimand ordered by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2007. The nation’s high court declined Monday without comment.

According to the court record, the case before James beginning in 2001 dealt with child abuse. It was brought by a mother seeking court-ordered protection for her child, who had allegedly been physically abused by her husband. James held three hearings in the case, ultimately barring the father from any unsupervised visitation with the child.

James was a chancery judge in Humphreys, Issaquena, Sunflower, Warren and Washington counties and is a candidate for office again this year, this time opposite two candidates for the post of Mississippi Supreme Court Justice in the Central District Place 3, which includes Warren County.

Incumbent and Chief Justice James W. Smith of Brandon and attorney Jim Kitchens of Crystal Springs join James on the Nov. 4 ballot.

 

High court declines to hear Loden case

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Mississippi death row inmate Thomas E. Loden Jr., a former Vicksburg resident, convicted of killing a teen-age girl in 2000.

The Mississippi Supreme Court in 2007 rejected Loden’s claims that he relied on faulty advice from his attorney when he pleaded guilty to capital murder and was unexpectedly sentenced to death.

The Mississippi court held because Loden pleaded guilty, the validity of that plea can’t be appealed. The nation’s high court declined to hear the case Monday.

Loden, a former Marine recruiter, was sentenced to death in 2001 in Itawamba County for killing 16-year-old Leesa Gray. He was also sentenced to 30 years on kidnapping and rape counts.

Gray was found dead in Loden’s van in June 2000 a day after leaving work from her family’s restaurant in the Dorsey community, according to court documents.

At the time, Loden was working at a U.S. Marine Corps recruitment center in Vicksburg located in the Sack ’N Save Plaza. He was visiting relatives in the northeast Mississippi county at the time of the killing.

 

Court Street rail crossing to close starting Wednesday

The rail crossing on Court Street near downtown will be closed from Wednesday through Friday for repairs.

Work to replace tracks along the crossing, about a block from Vicksburg and Warren Central junior high schools, is expected to take from 7 a.m. Wednesday until noon Friday.

Meanwhile, Paxton Road, which was closed to vehicular traffic last week for similar work, has been reopened.