Lincoln County accused killer dies Saturday morning
Published 2:17 pm Saturday, May 30, 2015
A Brookhaven man accused of shooting three children and their parents in March died Saturday morning.
Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said Jimmy Lyons, 32, was found unresponsive in his jail bed at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. At that point he was transported to King’s Daughters Medical Center. Deputy Coroner Robert Tyler said the time of death was 10:15 a.m.
Rushing said Lyons appeared fine when he was served breakfast at 7:30 a.m. According to protocol, the Mississippi Highway Patrol will be handling the investigation into Lyons’s death.
Rushing said no obvious cause of death has been identified, and the body will be sent to Jackson for an autopsy. Tyler said he saw no trauma to the body.
Lyons has been in custody since March 13 charged with the murder of 9-year-old Jamiyah Sims and her father Jeramine Sims Sr. He was also charged with aggravated assault for allegedly shooting Victoria Sims, 14-year-old Takial Sims and 6-year-old Jermaine Sims Jr.
Lyons was awaiting the grand jury to decide whether or not to hand down an indictment.
On March 13 at 12:20 a.m. Brookhaven police responded to a call about an injured woman lying in the road. On arrival officers found Victoria Sims, who had been shot in the chest. Two children, Takial and Jermaine Jr., were with her. Takial had been shot in the chest and arm, and Jermaine Jr. had been shot in the head.
Once backup arrived, police entered the Sims’s home, where Lyons was taken into custody and transported to BPD. The officers also found Jermaine Sr. and Jamiyah in the house. Jermaine Sr. and Jamiyah died later that morning.
Lyons was living with the family in a house at 1088 South First St. where the shooting occurred. Chief Bobby Bell said that further investigation found that the incident began not from an altercation but was the result of a conversation earlier that day that the perpetrator, Lyons, thought about and later took action on.