Beating victim dies; suspect faces charge of murder|[10/24/05]
Published 12:00 am Monday, October 24, 2005
A Vicksburg man accused of assaulting another at a city car wash last week will be arraigned on a murder charge today because the victim died at a Jackson hospital Sunday, Warren County District Attorney Gil Martin said.
“He will be arraigned on murder charge in city court today, and we will probably set bond,” he said. “He was being held without bond pending the outcome of his medical condition.”
Benjamin Brooks, 30, 469 Union Ave., was originally charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly struck Derral Holmes, 25, 933 Bowmar Ave., in the head with an aluminum baseball bat at T&S Tunnel Express Wednesday. Vicksburg police arrested Brooks about half an hour after the beating.
“The charge has been upgraded to murder,” Martin said.
Warren County Coroner John Thomason said an autopsy will be today or Tuesday at Mississippi Mortuary Service in Rankin County to determine how Holmes died.
Holmes died at 1:50 p.m. Sunday at University Medical Center in Jackson, to which he had been flown Wednesday.
Authorities gave no motive in the city’s sixth homicide this year.
“We don’t want to say what the motive was right now, because all we have is the suspect’s statement,” Investigator Brad Derrington of the Vicksburg Police Department said. “We’ll have more to say later.”
Previously, the latest homicide in the city had been Oct. 14. William Presley Brown, 32, 801 Clay St., was charged with capital murder after police found the nude body of 43-year-old Chenara Young, 1303 Wood St., Oct. 15 behind a trash bin outside The Vicksburg Apartments.
Charges are pending against suspects in three other homicides.
No arrest has been made in the shooting death of David W. “Jones” Anderson, who was killed July 28 while leaving the Elks Lodge, 2916 Walnut St.