Nearly four months ago, 87-year-old Willie Jordan stood at the front door of the Vicksburg Police Department and said an arrest in the killing of his nephew, retired law enforcement officer Walter Cole, meant he finally got a good night’s sleep.

Now, the former suspect, Tyler Lee Smith, is out of jail after a Warren County grand jury declined to indict him, no new arrests have been made and none are expected.

Smith was the only suspect in the case, Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong confirmed. No other people of interest have been identified, he said. In sum, that means no one will ever be prosecuted for robbing and shooting to death Cole, who was 75, on July 23, 2008.

Jordan said a cold chill went over him when he found out Smith had been released, and once again, he cannot rest.

“I feel bad. The other night, I didn’t sleep any. I didn’t go to bed until 2 o’clock, and I got back up at 4 because it’s worrying us about how this thing was handled,” said Jordan. “Something ain’t right in this thing. Something ain’t right.”

More than a year passed between Cole’s death and the arrest of Smith last Nov. 6. Police said their suspect had been identified early in the investigation and accumulating evidence in the case had been gradual.

Assistant Police Chief Jeffery Scott said the evidence presented to grand jurors was the best circumstantial case he had worked in about 11 years.

“Everything lined up,” said Scott, but a witness declined to tell the panel what she had told police. “We strongly feel the eyewitness was threatened, which led to her recanting,” Scott said. He said he could not substantiate his beliefs because the witness would not cooperate with officials.

District Attorney Ricky Smith termed the testimony “crucial” and decisive because it would have put Tyler Smith in the same area as Cole near the time Cole died.

Grand jurors, in choosing to “no-bill” Smith, 41, 3112 N. Washington St., said there was not enough evidence to take the criminal case to court. Prosecutors and police said they were blind-sided by witnesses, indicating more than one changed their stories. No fingerprints or DNA were recovered from the scene, Ricky Smith said, and the case was “purely circumstantial.”

Cole was a pioneer law enforcement officer, one of the first black officers on the Vicksburg Police Department. He rose to the rank of assistant chief and, after retirement, continued to work in law enforcement for the Warren County Sheriff’s Department. Associates remember him as a quiet man and a person of gentle good humor.

In earlier interviews, Jordan said he talked to his nephew just about every day. The search started when Cole couldn’t be contacted. Jordan spotted Cole’s car near his home at Waltersville Estates and first thought his nephew’s car had broken down because he had seen the vehicle in the same place for nearly two days.

When he decided to take a closer look, Jordan said to his son, “Do you reckon Walter’s in his car dead?” He was, having been shot and, authorities believe, robbed.

Jordan said he and Cole’s sisters, Marguerite Willis of Cary and Ruth Gates of Greenville, plan to speak with the DA about the case, including the statements.

“It ain’t over yet,” said Jordan. “I’ve been told too many times that they had the right man. It’s a hurting thing for that to happen. People want to say one thing then go and say another.”

“I really feel sorry for the Cole family,” Scott said. “I feel they were denied justice because this witness developed amnesia.”

Because authorities alleged robbery in addition to murder, Tyler Smith had faced a capital indictment and the possibility of a death sentence. Before the January grand jury, Jim Lappan of the Jackson firm Capital Defense Counsel, who represented Smith, said the evidence to which police investigator Johnnie Edwards referred in testimony did not directly link Smith to Cole’s murder or the robbery charge.

The investigator said video surveillance from a local convenience store showed the two men arguing just before Cole’s death.

Edwards told jurors another witness said Smith had a ring and a .38-caliber handgun that belonged to Cole — information that had not been made public at the time.

Scott said he does not want to speculate on the possibility of another arrest but plans to “go back to work” on the case.

“It’s not closed. We will start combing over the case again,” said Scott. “The department will continue investigating this as we do all other cases.”

A no-bill by a grand jury does not mean a case cannot be presented again against a defendant.

Contact Tish Butts at tbutts@vicksburgpost.com