A Pearl River County man convicted of killing a friend for cash will spend the rest of his life in prison after the Mississippi Supreme Court declined April 22 to review his case, leaving intact a September appeals court ruling that upheld the life sentence.
Austin Brookshire was convicted in the 2020 shooting death of Willie Jones. Court documents say Brookshire and his brother, Dustin Gray, were riding with Jones in the early morning hours of July 6, 2020, when Brookshire turned from the front passenger seat and shot Jones, who was in the backseat listening to music with headphones.
Court records say the brothers took a shoebox full of cash Jones had been displaying, dumped the weapon and Jones’s clothes in Lake Pontchartrain, bought shovels and bleach at a Slidell Lowe’s when it opened at 6 a.m., and buried Jones in a shallow grave in a wooded hunting area in Pearl River County. Jones’s family reported him missing, and investigators said Gray was later located in Colorado and told detectives where the body lay. Brookshire was arrested July 17, 2020, in Rankin County.
On appeal, Brookshire argued an investigator violated his constitutional rights by questioning him two days after his arrest, after he had asked for a lawyer and before he had been formally charged or appointed counsel. The appeals court agreed the investigator crossed a constitutional line but said the violation did not affect the outcome given other evidence, including Brookshire’s admission to a younger brother, surveillance footage of him buying burial supplies, and the recovery of Jones’s body where Gray said it was.
The Mississippi Supreme Court’s six-justice majority denied review without comment. One justice did not participate. This is a developing story and will be updated as more details emerge.
