The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, Miss. (AP) -- A Jefferson Davis County, Miss. man will pay with his life for the 2001 shooting death of a Prentiss police officer.
Cory Maye, 23, showed no reaction when a Marion County jury of eight women and four men found him guilty of capital murder Friday for the death of Officer Ron Jones.
Jones was one of eight officers conducting a search warrant looking for illegal drugs at two apartments on Mary Street in Prentiss on Dec. 26, 2001. Shortly after Jones entered Maye’s bedroom, he was shot in the chest, just below his bullet-resistant vest.
“It’s been two years since he was killed and the hurt will never go away,” said Jones’ father, Ronald Jones, who was the Prentiss police chief at the time of his son’s death. “But maybe now that we have the conviction this will bring us closure and we’ll be able to move on.”
Shortly before Marion County Circuit Court Judge Michael Eubanks sentenced Maye to death by lethal injection, he asked Maye if he wanted to address the court.
“No,” Maye replied.
On Thursday, Maye testified he didn’t know Jones was a police officer when he shot him. His defense attorney, Rhonda Cooper of Jackson, argued that Maye acted in self defense.
Because of the death sentence, Maye will get an automatic appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court.