Murder suspects back in court Tuesday

Published 9:48 pm Monday, August 19, 2019

Three men charged with capital murder of a Brookhaven woman shot to death during a burglary will be back in court Tuesday to face a municipal judge at a preliminary hearing.

Judge Brad Boerner on July 30 set bond for Adrian Smith, 18, of Brookhaven, at $2 million, but set bonds for half that amount for 19-year-old Jatavious Berry, of Brookhaven, and 24-year-old Justin Anderson of Natchez. They received bonds of $1 million each.

During the three initial appearances, Boerner also appointed a public defender for each of the men.

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The separate preliminary hearings will be held beginning at 1 p.m.Tuesday in city court, which is located in the Lincoln County Justice Court building. More details of the shooting that took the life of Zaria A. Newton will likely be presented.

Boerner presided over each man’s initial appearance separately, reading the same charge against each man — capital murder for killing Newton while engaged in a felony. The men allegedly were burglarizing the house on Mason Road that Newton shared with her boyfriend, Javion Richardson, when the couple came home and confronted the intruders. Newton was shot and died later that night at King’s Daughters Medical Center.

Smith’s bond was set higher because Boerner considers the teenager a flight risk. He was arrested at Evers International Airport by the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority July 22. The other two men charged in Newton’s death both turned themselves in to police. Berry surrendered to Brookhaven police July 21. Anderson surrendered to deputies at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office July 22.

A fourth suspect, Shawan Allen, 20, of Brookhaven, was killed in a shootout with law officers the afternoon of July 22 in the Beauregard community of Copiah County, just north of Wesson.