Scott Receives Life Sentence In Exxon Store Robbery

WATER VALLEY – A 37 year-old Charleston man will spend the rest of life behind bars after he was sentenced Tuesday for robbing the Exxon Store on Frostland Drive in Water Valley in 2020.
Kendrick Scott was convicted for the robbery charge back in April when a jury delivered a guilty verdict in Circuit Court in Water Valley. Circuit Judge Jimmy McClure sentenced Scott during a hearing Tuesday morning at the Panola County Courthouse. Scott was sentenced as a habitual offender as he had two earlier felony convictions – one for robbing the same Exxon store in 2017 and an earlier conviction for attempted robbery in the 1990s.
“I am pleased the system handed down a sentence to take this man off the streets,” Water Valley Police Chief Jason Mangrum told the Herald Tuesday afternoon.
Scott’s robbery trial in April was the first criminal trial in circuit court at the Water Valley courthouse in three years. A reported affiliation between Scott and the Gangster Disciples prompted intense courtroom security, setting the stage for a bizarre trial overshadowed by unrelated capital murder charges Scott also faces for his alleged role in a double murder that occurred on May 17, 2020, nine days before the store robbery.
Scott is scheduled to return to the courtroom on September 13 for the 2020 murders of Jennifer Nault and Richard “Richie” Dicken, Jr. Their bodies were discovered just it was breaking dawn on a Sunday morning when firefighters were dispatched to a fully-involved single-wide mobile home on County Road 294, just west of Water Valley. The firefighters were immediately alerted that the occupants could be inside, as neighbors reported their vehicles were in the driveway.
By the time the firefighters arrived on the scene, much of the exterior of the trailer had already collapsed. They extinguished the flames, entered the home, and discovered the bodies and a deceased dog inside. An autopsy revealed that both victims were shot before the home was torched.
More than a week would pass before Yalobusha County Coroner Ronnie Stark was able to confirm the identity of the two victims after obtaining DNA samples from family members. More than eight more months would pass before Scott was charged with the murders.
Assistant District Attorney Steve Jubera previously told the Herald that drugs are what brought Scott to that house.
“But to say it was a drug deal gone bad downplays the level of violence that occurred. It is hard to imagine something more violent,” he explained about the murders.
Jubera noted that multiple state agencies assisted the sheriff’s department with the tedious murder investigation after the state medical examiner ruled both deaths were homicides.

Final Comment On Sentence
“Absent a successful appeal, Mr. Scott will never see the light of day again,” Jubera told the Herald Tuesday after the sentencing for the robbery charge. Jubera has worked diligently with Sheriff Mark D. Fulco and Mangrum on the both the robbery and homicide investigations.
“The sheriff, police chief and district attorney’s office all have a duty to keep the public safe. In this particular case Mr. Scott robbed a store that he was out on parole for robbing. He was released early by the Mississippi Department of Corrections,” the assistant district attorney added. “Unfortunately there are career offenders. The evidence shows that Kendrick Scott is a career offender, but he will not offend again against the people of Yalobusha County. And he is still facing very serious charges.”