District Attorney Ricky Smith confirmed today the young Vicksburg father shot to death Sunday after a bar fight was trying to join the military after being indicted last month on a burglary charge.

Derrick Stamps Jr., 18, had been released from the Warren County Jail under $20,000 bond in September after being accused of stealing five guns from the Sports Center on Pemberton Square Boulevard. He also was accused of breaking into USA Pawn on Warrenton Road, but nothing was reported missing there.

Separately, Sgt. Sandra Williams of the Vicksburg Police Department said this morning that Stamps was a suspect in an attack in June 2009 that left a Vicksburg man with five gunshot wounds.

In January, the Warren County grand jury indicted Stamps for business burglary, and he was scheduled to go to trial in June.

Smith said today he had been in plea negotiations with Stamps’ court-appointed attorney, Leslie Sadler.

Stamps “was trying to get into the military. I believe he was trying to do better,” Smith said. The victim’s father, Derrick Stamps Sr., a Vicksburg Fire Department training officer, said Monday that he had planned to drive his son to Birmingham, Ala., for military placement testing. Instead, his son’s body, with multiple gunshot wounds, was at Lakeview Funeral Home.

Sadler, the attorney, confirmed a deal had been discussed, but said no agreement had been reached. She said she had spoken with Smith only one time about the case.

 “It’s too premature to say what the outcome would have been,” she said.

Sgt. Williams said Stamps was not charged in the June 23, 2009, robbery and shooting because the weapon had not been found. The victim in that case, by coincidence, drove to the Exxon Jubilee parking lot at Mission 66 and Clay Street after being shot in his car at Zollingers Hill and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

That’s the same place where police say Dominic Rashad Turner, 19, 202 Easy St., shot and killed Stamps at 1:04 a.m. Sunday. Turner was scheduled to appear in Vicksburg Municipal Court at noon today to be officially charged.

Williams said the shooting occurred after Stamps approached a Nissan Maxima in which Turner was a passenger. She said the two had been at the same bar, Joanna’s Club at 3961 N. Washington St., earlier in the evening and Turner broke up a fight between Stamps and another teen.

Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey initially said Stamps was shot three times. He said the tiny holes caused by the small-caliber weapon made determining the number of shots difficult during the initial examination and said there were “multiple” wounds, including one to the head.

Police believe the meeting at the store was coincidental, and store manager Gehad Shaibi said both men were buying fuel.

Turner surrendered at Vicksburg police headquarters at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday and was charged in the shooting, Williams said.

The fatal shooting was the first homicide in the city this year, officials said.

Stamps, the father of 3-month-old Kaleigh “Kay-Kay” Stamps, was an electrical technology student at Hinds Community College, Derrick Stamps Sr. said.

Stamps is also survived by his mother, Anesa Ellis, of Vicksburg, four younger sisters and a younger brother.

Contact Tish Butts at tbutts@vicksburgpost.com