The Associated Press
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) - Prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty in the capital murder trial of a Wiggins man charged in the killing of a Moss Point police officer.
The trial of Jonathan White began this week.
White, 26, is accused of killing officer Larry Lee during an October 2002 police pursuit that ended on the Mississippi 63 bridge overlooking the Escatawpa River. Lee was struck by a vehicle allegedly driven by White.
District Attorney Tony Lawrence announced in court Tuesday that Lee’s family asked him not to seek the death penalty in White’s case, leaving life in prison without parole as the only option for the jury if White is convicted.
That issue was just one of several developments in the first day of testimony before Circuit Judge Dale Harkey. During more than six hours of testimony, jurors also learned that investigators from the administration of former District Attorney Keith Miller lost taped recordings of witnesses in the case.
Testimony also showed two cars that were a key part of physical evidence for the state were sold to a scrap yard and destroyed and that White was legally drunk at the time of Lee’s death, with toxicology reports showing his blood alcohol content at 0.09 percent. A blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent is considered legally drunk in Mississippi.
During opening statements, defense attorney Brice Kerr said when White was arrested, it was on the charge of manslaughter. Kerr said the indictment is incorrect because it says White caused Lee’s death “feloniously, willfully without malice or forethought.”
“This was a terrible accident,” Kerr said.
White’s vehicle, prosecutors allege, hit a barrier, flipped and rammed into Lee’s patrol car, throwing Lee more than 200 feet from the vehicle, authorities said.