Bond was set at $100,000 Monday for the woman accused of murder in the 2007 shooting of a Vicksburg cab company owner.

Valerie Shepard, 38, 1609B Court St., who was arrested at her home Friday and charged with killing J&B Cab Company owner James Buie, appeared in the Vicksburg Municipal Court for the bond hearing.

She is accused of shooting Buie once in the abdomen with a handgun on June 27, 2007, at the Kar-Kleen Machine Shop & Car Wash, 2900 Clay St., near Hope Street.

Buie’s daughter Tameka Butler was present during the hearing and was not happy with Vicksburg Municipal Court Judge Nancy Thomas’ decision.

“I think it’s wrong — point blank. (Shepard) get’s off with a slap on the wrist,” said Butler. “With a $100,000 bond, she can get out.”

Butler said what she considered a low amount was given to Shepard as a result of her being 5 months pregnant.

“People have babies in prison all the time,” said Butler. “Finally we get justice, and she gets a slap on the wrist because she’s pregnant.”

Butler said she expected Shepard not to receive a bond.

After the hearing, Shepard was taken to Warren County Jail.

She already has served time for a manslaughter conviction in the 1993 shooting death of her husband, according to police Assistant Chief Jeffery Scott.

A male suspect in the Buie case, Timothy Clark, 23, faces an accessory to murder charge, Lt. Bobby Stewart said.

Clark is serving a 45-year sentence at East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian for unrelated Vicksburg charges including four counts of armed robbery, armed carjacking and possession of a weapon by a felon. Clark was arrested on those charges on July 11, 2007, just weeks after Buie was shot.

The business owner apparently had stopped to clean his cab that June morning, and now, police officials believe, Clark and Shepard lured him to the car wash.

Buie was taken to River Region Medical Center before being transferred to University Medical Center in Jackson where he died on July 14.

Before his death, Buie gave police a statement of the shooting that helped them “put the puzzle together,” Stewart said. He told police he was not robbed.

Buie’s interview along with a re-examination of evidence and interviews and new interviews led police to the suspects, Stewart said.

Buie operated J&B Cab Company for 15 years until his death. Last year on July 20, Butler closed the company’s doors stating the city’s insurance requirements and heavily subsidized NRoute transit system put the firm out of business.

For the first time in more than 75 years, the city has been without taxi service.

The Buie shooting was the third “cold case” in which arrests have been made since October.

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Contact Tish Butts at tbutts@vicksburgpost.com