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Anthony Carr Mississippi Death Row

Anthony Carr was sentenced to death by the State of Mississippi for a quadruple murder. According to court documents Anthony Carr and Robert Simon forced their way into a home and during the process of robbing it the family came home. Anthony Carr and Robert Simon would shoot and kill four members of the Parker family including two young children, 12 year old Gregory and 9 year old Charlotte. After the murders the house was set on fire. Anthony Carr and Robert Simon would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Mississippi Death Row Inmate List

Anthony Carr 2021 Information

Race: BLACK	Sex: MALE	Date of Birth: 08/22/1965
Height: 6′ 1”	Weight: 203	Complexion: DARK
Build: MEDIUM	Eye Color: BROWN	Hair Color: BLACK
Entry Date: 09/20/1990	Location: MSP	UNIT: UNIT 29
Location Change Date: 12/17/2019	Number of Sentences: 4	Total Length: DEATH

Robert Simon 2021 Information

Race: BLACK	Sex: MALE	Date of Birth: 08/23/1963
Height: 6′ 0”	Weight: 248	Complexion: DARK
Build: LARGE	Eye Color: BROWN	Hair Color: GREY OR
Entry Date: 07/06/1990	Location: MSP	UNIT: UNIT 29
Location Change Date: 11/12/2019	Number of Sentences: 7	Total Length: DEATH

Anthony Carr More News

On Friday, February 2, 1990, Carl Parker, his wife Bobbie Jo, and their children, twelve year old Gregory and nine year old Charlotte, left the Riverside Baptist Church in Clarksdale to return to their home on Highway 322 in rural Quitman County, some fifteen miles from Clarksdale. The Parkers were last seen leaving the church between 8:45 and 9:15 p.m. that evening.

Around 11:00 p.m., Billy King was driving east on Highway 322 when he spotted a fire at the Parker home. Mr. King went to the house, tried to open the unlocked carport door, but was driven back by the fire. Mr. King left the Parkers’ house and drove to the house of the nearest neighbor to call for help. Mr. King did not pass any vehicles on his way to the neighbor’s house, but as he looked back towards the Parkers’ house from the neighbors’ front door, he saw two vehicles leave the Parker house, driving west on Highway 322.

At approximately the same time that King was at the neighbor’s house trying to get help, Joe McCullough was driving east on Highway 322. McCullough testified that he remembered meeting two vehicles that were tailgating closely and traveling very fast towards Clarksdale. He identified the lead vehicle as a Silverado pick-up truck.

Fireman Jerry Wages with the Lambert Volunteer Fire Department received the call reporting the Parkers’ fire between 11:00 and 11:20 p.m. It was raining heavily that evening. Wages was the first to arrive at the scene of the fire, and he found the southwest corner of the house on fire. The back door was unlocked, and he crawled into the house. He recovered the body of Carl Parker. Wages went back into the house and recovered the bodies of Charlotte and Gregory. Wages recalled that Carl and Gregory were bound at their feet and ankles and their wrists were tied behind their backs. There was also a remnant of a binding on Charlotte’s wrist. Charlotte was undressed from the waist down beneath the dress she was wearing. Wages said she had a wound on her hip as well. The body of Bobbie Jo Parker was not discovered until the early morning hours after the fire was finally extinguished. Her body was found in the southwest corner of the house and was burned beyond recognition.

Quitman County Sheriff Jack Harrison arrived at the scene and notified authorities that Carl Parker’s red Silverado pick-up truck was missing. He saw the bodies and noticed the hands and feet of Carl and Gregory were bound. Charlotte had a red ribbon tied around her arm. Her knee high stockings were partially burned off, and she did not have on underclothes. Bobbie Jo Parker’s body was found lying on some springs around 2:00 or 2:30 a.m.

Around midnight that same night, Eddie Lee Spralls, a Clarksdale resident, looked out his back window after hearing a door slam and observed a red truck backing up between two abandoned houses. Spralls called the police. Upon arrival, the Clarksdale police put a spotlight on the truck. Two black males jumped out of the truck and ran toward Highway 61.

The truck, identified by the police as Carl Parker’s, was parked close to the home of Robert Simon’s mother-in-law. It was filled with household items, furniture, appliances, and other valuables, all belonging to the Parkers. A shotgun was found in the back of the truck, and a pillow case containing two revolvers and other items belonging to the Parkers was found near the truck.

Martha Simon, Robert Simon’s wife, had left Memphis and had driven to Clarksdale to see her mother on February 2, 1990. She said that Carr had been living with her and Robert in their Memphis apartment for the previous three weeks. Around 12:30 a.m. on February 3, 1990, Martha was in her car when she saw Carr walking down the street. Carr asked Martha if she had seen Robert. Martha replied that she thought Carr and Robert had been together, but Carr told her that he had come on ahead and Robert was behind him. She asked Carr how he got to town. Carr responded that he was driving a truck and pointed in the direction where the Parker truck was later found. Carr told her that he had parked the truck on 9th Street and that the truck had “stuff” in it. He also told Martha that he had some money. Carr said that he had put the keys to the truck along the railroad tracks and some coveralls in a dumpster, the location of which Carr told her.

Martha again saw Carr looking for Robert around 8:00 a.m. at her mother’s house. The next time she saw Carr, Robert was with him. They came to Martha’s mother’s house and told her they were going to Memphis. Carr was wearing a black jogging suit each of the three times Martha saw him.

Coahoma County Sheriff Andrew Thompson, Jr., received information from Martha Simon that led to the recovery of a pair of coveralls and a pair of work gloves from a locked dumpster near Simon’s mother-in-law’s house in Clarksdale. The coveralls were wet and smelled of smoke. The gloves were identified by Dean Parker, Carl Parker’s son, as the same type gloves he had given his father.

Ken Dickerson, an investigator with the Highway Patrol, and Sheriff Thompson, with Martha Simon’s permission and in her company, went to Memphis to search the apartment she shared with her husband, Robert Simon. They found the wet, black jogging suit Carr was wearing earlier that day. Other items including a man’s and a woman’s wedding rings, a money clip, and ammunition were also found in the apartment. Martha identified items in the apartment that had not been there earlier.

Scott Parker and Dean Parker, Carl’s sons from a previous marriage, identified many of the items found in the truck, the pillow case, and the apartment in Memphis. Carr’s fingerprint was found on the shotgun found in the truck.

On February 3, 1990, two arrest warrants were issued in Marks, Mississippi. Anthony Carr and Robert Simon, Jr., were arrested around 3:30 p.m. that day in Clarksdale.

According to Anthony Washington, an inmate at the Tate County jail in the early part of February, 1990, Carr came in around midnight and was put into the cell next to his. Washington asked who he was and what he was in for, and Carr told him. Washington had been reading about the crime in the newspaper and offered to read the story to Carr. Washington said that he and Carr were playing cards when Carr stopped and said “we had a ball,” as he held his hand to his head like a gun.

Carr was later taken for a blood test. Upon his return, Carr asked Washington “are you straight?” and whether he could tell Washington something “brother to brother.” Carr asked Washington if they could tell if he raped that little girl, and Washington asked him what happened. Carr told Washington that he and his partner had raped the little girl and that one of them had to burn the house down to destroy the evidence.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ms-supreme-court/1149311.html

Xavier Brown Mississippi Death Row

Xavier Brown was sentenced to death by the State of Mississippi for a contract killing. According to court documents Xavier Brown was paid to murder Felicia Newell by her ex husband Anthony Sims. Felicia Newell was set to testify against Anthony Sims for a concealed weapons charge. After Felicia Newell was shot and killed Anthony Sims would die soon after of a drug overdose which apparently he did so he did not have to pay Xavier Brown. Police believed the case was closed after Anthony Sims died as he was considered to be the prime suspect. However months later Xavier Brown would brag about the murder to an acquaintance who then told police. Xavier Brown would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Mississippi Death Row Inmate List

Xavier Brown 2021 Information

Race: BLACK	Sex: MALE	Date of Birth: 01/31/1966
Height: 5′ 8”	Weight: 238	Complexion: DARK
Build: LARGE	Eye Color: BROWN	Hair Color: UNKNOWN
Entry Date: 07/12/2002	Location: MSP	UNIT: UNIT 29
Location Change Date: 11/22/2019	Number of Sentences: 2	Total Length: DEATH

Xavier Brown Other News

On February 26, 1998, Felicia Newell was found dead in her car, outside her apartment building in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She had been shot with a nine-millimeter pistol. Two eyewitnesses, James Bigler and Susan Petrush, reported hearing a gunshot and seeing a black male, wearing gloves, walking away from Newell’s vehicle. Bigler stated that the man had something concealed in his right hand and got into the passenger side of what appeared to be a Blue Cutlass. After the man entered the car, Bigler noticed another subject was in the driver’s seat also wearing white gloves. The vehicle fled the scene of the crime. Petrush told the police that she called the apartment complex answering service and then the police.

¶ 3. The prime suspect in Newell’s murder was her ex-husband, Anthony Sims, who had a history of physically abusing Newell. Also, Newell was scheduled to testify against Sims in March 1998 on a concealed weapons charge. Prior to the murder, Sims left Newell a threatening voice-mail message, stating, “There’s a contract out on you.” Another individual’s voice is captured on the message who whispered statements to Sims, who then repeated the messages to Newell.

¶ 4. Two days later, the police found Sims dead of a prescription drug overdose in a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, motel. Sims death was ruled a suicide, leaving the police with no leads. The Newell murder case appeared to be closed.

¶ 5. Months later, a man named Donald Crosby told a friend of Newell that a man named “Tony” Brown had killed her. Crosby told the police that a man named Xavier Brown had bragged to him about killing Newell. Crosby stated that Brown had been hired by Sims to murder Newell and that Sims had committed suicide to avoid paying his debt to Brown.

¶ 6. Then, a man named Corey Johnson, who was engaged to Brown’s sister, came forward on June 10, 1999 (over a year after the murder) and told the police that he had ridden with Brown from Laurel to Hattiesburg. Johnson told the police that he had seen Brown murder Newell with a nine-millimeter pistol. He also told the police that Brown had threatened his life if he told anyone what he saw.

¶ 7. Based on the evidence compiled from Crosby and Johnson and two eyewitness neighbors of Newell, James Bigler and Susan Petrush, the State secured an indictment for Brown.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ms-supreme-court/1313986.html

Joseph Brown Mississippi Death Row

Joseph Brown was sentenced to death by the State of Mississippi for a robbery murder. According to court documents Joseph Brown would shoot and kill a convenience store clerk in the commission of a robbery. Joseph Brown would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Mississippi Death Row Inmate List

Joseph Brown 2021 Information

Race: BLACK	Sex: MALE	Date of Birth: 11/18/1968
Height: 5′ 11”	Weight: 219	Complexion: DARK
Build: LARGE	Eye Color: BROWN	Hair Color: BLACK
Entry Date: 03/17/1994	Location: MSP	UNIT: UNIT 29
Location Change Date: 03/18/2019	Number of Sentences: 1	Total Length: DEATH

Joseph Brown More News

In the early hours of August 8, 1992, Brown and his girlfriend, Rachel Walker, were driving around Natchez in search of drugs. Brown drove to the Charter Food Store and went inside. Walker stayed in the car and observed Brown approach the counter. Walker saw the store clerk, Martha Day, grab her chest and fall. Brown returned to the car with a gun and a cash register. Brown allegedly told Walker, “If you love me, you won’t say anything.” Day’s body was later discovered with four bullet wounds. She had been shot once in the head, once through the heart, and twice in the back. The convenience store had marked a two-dollar bill and left it in the cash register. This bill was included in the currency that Brown gave to Walker for a drug purchase later that morning. Walker also pawned a .22 caliber pistol for $20 that same day which was used for yet another drug purchase. Police recovered both the two-dollar bill and the .22 pistol.

¶ 3. Walker and Brown were arrested on August 11, 1992. While in jail, Brown sent notes and letters to Walker which contained incriminating statements such as, “But we must be strong if we are going to beat this stuff ․ just tell them that you don’t know anything.” A fellow inmate, Larry Bernard, said that Brown confided that he (Brown) had shot Martha Day and taken the cash register. The State’s ballistics expert linked the bullets found in Day’s body with the pistol pawned by Walker. A jury found Brown guilty as charged, and he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Brown appealed the conviction and sentence which were affirmed by this Court in Brown v. State, 682 So.2d 340 (Miss.1996). He was represented on appeal by his trial counsel, Pamela Ferrington and Donald Ogden.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ms-supreme-court/1045333.html

James Billiot Mississippi Death Row

James Billiot was sentenced to death by the State of Mississippi for a triple murder. According to court documents James Billiot would murder his mother, stepfather and stepsister by striking them repeatedly with an eight pound sledge hammer. James Billiot would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Mississippi Death Row Inmate List

James Billiot 2021 Information

Race: WHITE	Sex: MALE	Date of Birth: 06/10/1961
Height: 5′ 8”	Weight: 154	Complexion: MEDIUM
Build: MEDIUM	Eye Color: BROWN	Hair Color: BROWN
Entry Date: 12/13/1982	Location: MSP	UNIT: UNIT 29
Location Change Date: 05/05/2020	Number of Sentences: 1	Total Length: DEATH

James Billiot More News

On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1981, Wallace Croll, Jr., Billiot’s stepfather, was found bludgeoned to death in his home. Billiot’s mother and Billiot’s 14-year-old stepsister were also found in the home, killed in the same manner. The bodies were found by 12-year-old Stephen Croll, Chris Lee, and George Hebbler. Young Croll, Lee and Hebbler were returning from Picayune, Mississippi, on the morning of November 26, 1981, when they saw James Billiot driving Wallace Croll’s car. They became suspicious and immediately went to Croll’s Leetown community home. There they found the bodies, as well as an 8-pound sledge hammer lying near the deceased. On the floor, they also found Wallace Croll’s wallet and several papers scattered about.

Bryan Strickland, a Leetown resident and acquaintance of Billiot’s, testified that on November 7, 1981, while at the Living Waters Church of God in Picayune, Mississippi, James Billiot told Strickland that he was going to kill his mother and his stepfather. Leo Jones testified that on the morning of November 26, 1981, he saw Billiot hitchhiking and gave him a ride from Picayune to the Leetown community. James Billiot did not want to be let out in front of the Croll house in Leetown but insisted on being let out by a field near the house.

When the bodies were found, an all-points bulletin was issued in Mississippi and Louisiana and two days later Billiot was arrested by the New Orleans police department. After a hearing he was extradited to Mississippi. On April 27, 1982, appellant filed the following motions: Motion to suppress evidence; motion to change venue; motion to conduct mental examination of defendant, and motion to conduct separate hearing on robbery charges.

During the July, 1982, term of the court a hearing was had on the motion for change of venue and the motion for psychiatric examination. The motion to change venue was denied and the motion for psychiatric examination was sustained.

In September, 1982, appellant filed several more motions including a motion to prohibit jury dispersal, motion to request special venire, notice of insanity defense, motion for omnibus hearing and motion to suppress evidence. In October, 1982, the *452 motion to suppress was overruled, after a full hearing. The motion for change of venue was sustained from Hancock County to adjacent Harrison County. Appellant objected to Harrison County as the site of the new venue but this objection was overruled. On November 15, 1982, appellant filed a motion for continuance. This motion was overruled and on November 29 and 30, 1982, the trial court overruled the motion for individual voir dire of the jury and a renewal motion for change of venue. After Billiot had undergone mental examination at the State Hospital at Whitfield, Mississippi, and had been determined competent to stand trial, the trial was conducted from November 29 December 2, 1982. The sole defense was insanity.

https://law.justia.com/cases/mississippi/supreme-court/1984/54960-0-0.html

Bobby Batiste Mississippi Death Row

Bobby Batiste was sentenced to death by the State of Mississippi for a robbery murder. According to court documents Bobby Batiste was stealing from his roommate, Andreas Galanis, and when the roommate found out Batiste would beat the college student to death. Bobby Batiste was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Mississippi Death Row Inmate List

Bobby Batiste 2021 Information

Race: BLACK	Sex: MALE	Date of Birth: 12/25/1979
Height: 6′ 1”	Weight: 287	Complexion: DARK
Build: LARGE	Eye Color: BROWN	Hair Color: BLACK
Entry Date: 11/02/2009	Location: MSP	UNIT: UNIT 29
Location Change Date: 08/03/2017	Number of Sentences: 1	Total Length: DEATH

Bobby Batiste More News

Bobby Batiste, Andreas Galanis, and Jaewoo Joo were Mississippi State University students who shared an apartment at Ace 21 Apartments, an apartment complex in Starkville, Mississippi. Their apartment had four bedrooms situated off a common area that included a dining area, living room, kitchen, and laundry area. Each tenant had a key that opened the front door of the apartment and that particular tenant’s bedroom door.

Events of March 6, 2008

¶ 3. The following events culminated in Deputy Charlie McVey’s discovery of Galanis’s body inside the shared apartment. On March 6, 2008, at about 1:30 or 1:40 p.m., Galanis and Batiste went to a branch of the Merchants and Farmers Bank in Starkville. A teller, Aloysius Rice, waited on Galanis, who had a checking account at the bank. Galanis cashed a $200 check and asked Rice for the balance on his account. Rice gave Galanis a one-hundred-dollar bill and five twenty-dollar bills. Rice noticed that there were a lot of debit-card transactions on the account. Rice testified that Galanis was shocked about the debit-card transactions because he did not use his debit card. Rice testified that Batiste seemed very concerned and empathetic.

¶ 4. Galanis spoke with Candace Dailey, a customer-service representative, about the unauthorized debit-card transactions. Dailey testified that Galanis and Batiste sat across from her desk; they were elbow to elbow. Galanis told her someone was taking money out of his account, he had never activated his debit card, and his debit card was in his apartment in a box. After Dailey reported Galanis’s debit card as stolen, Dailey and Galanis went over the transactions together and discovered that the total amount missing from Galanis’s account was $4,507.54. Dailey testified that Batiste was behaving like a supportive friend. Galanis left to go to class but promised to return.

¶ 5. Dailey and Rice testified that Galanis returned briefly with a young Asian man and again discussed the unauthorized debit-card transactions.¹ At 3:30 p.m., Galanis returned alone and waited to talk to Dailey, who was with another customer. A teller, Shannon Watson, observed that Galanis was agitated. Galanis told Dailey that Batiste had admitted that his girlfriend had been using Galanis’s debit card. Galanis had demanded that Batiste return the money by tomorrow, but Batiste had responded that that was impossible. Galanis told Dailey he wanted to file a police report and press charges, and he left the bank just after 4:00 p.m.

¶ 6. Watson testified that, when she left the bank for the day at about 4:10 or 4:15 p.m., she observed Galanis and Batiste in the parking lot having a heated argument. Each was standing next to his parked car, and a cement barrier was between the cars. Watson said Galanis was speaking loudly and exhibited angry body language, and Batiste was listening.

¶ 7. Rice testified that Batiste returned to the bank lobby between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 pm. and asked how long the bank kept ATM video images. When Rice responded that the images are kept for up to a year, he heard Batiste say, “Dog.”

¶ 8. Deputy Steven Woodruff of the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department testified that, at about 5:00 p.m., Galanis made a complaint at the sheriff’s department to the effect that he had noticed money missing from his checking account.

Events of March 7, 2008

¶ 9. The next day, March 7, 2008, was the Friday before spring break. Galanis’s mother testified that Galanis had planned to drive home to Biloxi, and then fly to Florida for a spring-break trip. When she did not hear from Galanis, she called the Oktibehha County Sheriff’s Department and asked for a deputy to go to Ace 21 Apartments to check on him. That afternoon, shortly before 5:00 p.m ., McVey went to Ace 21 Apartments in response to the call.

¶ 10. McVey testified that, when he arrived at Galanis’s building, many students were packing up and leaving for spring break. Batiste was standing next to a green Ford Explorer that was backed up to the sidewalk in front of the building. The Explorer’s rear hatch door was open. McVey told Batiste that he was there to check on Galanis. Batiste, who was smiling and seemed to be in a good mood, said “well, that’s my roommate.” Batiste told McVey that Galanis had left that morning with a friend, who was going to drive him to Biloxi. Batiste pointed to Galanis’s car, and said that it was broken down.

¶ 11. McVey called the sheriff’s department to report what he had learned, and was instructed to check the apartment physically for Galanis. McVey knocked on the door of the apartment, and Batiste let him in. It was very dim inside. McVey asked Batiste which bedroom belonged to Galanis, and Batiste pointed out Bedroom D, which was locked. McVey called the apartment’s office to get a key. He observed that Batiste was acting normally.

¶ 12. When McVey arrived at the office, Batiste abruptly pulled up in his Explorer. McVey asked Batiste to wait and let him back into the apartment. Batiste asked, “Am I a suspect?” McVey said “no,” that he was there to locate Galanis. After McVey got the key, Batiste sped back to the apartment. When McVey arrived, Batiste let him inside the apartment. With Batiste standing behind him, McVey unlocked the door to Bedroom D. He immediately saw a large pool of blood at the end of the bed. McVey testified that, at that point, he knew that everything Batiste had told him was a lie. He placed Batiste under arrest and called for backup.

¶ 13. Deputies Ford and West arrived and opened the door of Bedroom B, the unrented bedroom. They discovered the body of Galanis wrapped in blankets inside a wheelbarrow. Search warrants were obtained for Batiste’s apartment, vehicle, and person. Batiste was transported to the Oktibehha County Hospital, where Casey Hill, a registered nurse, took samples from his body and prepared a kit. Hill noticed no injuries on Batiste, but he had a blood spot on his leg.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ms-supreme-court/1631327.html