Three Hundred Jury Summons Will Be Mailed For Brooks’ Trial
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WATER VALLEY – Yalobusha County Circuit Clerk Daryl Burney will mail out 300 jury summons on Nov. 9 for an upcoming murder and arson trial for defendant Billy Brooks. Circuit Judge Smith Murphey signed the order directing the circuit clerk’s office to summon the large jury pool earlier this month. The jurors will report for service at the Yalobusha County Courthouse in Water Valley at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 27 during a special term of court that could span the entire week.
Brooks was indicted for first degree arson in the Dec. 26, 2020 fire at a mobile home located at 12 Pat Drive in the Boat Landing community west of Water Valley. An occupant, Kristina Michell Jones, was discovered deceased inside the home after firefighters extinguished the blaze. Jones’ death has not been ruled a homicide. Brooks was also indicted for first degree murder in the June 13, 2021, death of former state representative Ashley Henley.
Henley, the sister-in-law of Jones, was outside the burned out mobile home when she was gunned down, shot in the head. Multiple law enforcement agencies including the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation investigated the murder.
Brooks’ indictment for arson was handed down by a grand jury on February 24, 2022. An amended, superseding indictment was handed down by a grand jury on June 30, 2022 for Henley’s death as a second count for first degree murder was added to the original indictment, indicating the two crimes are allegedly connected and the arson charge and murder charge will be heard during the same trial.
Brooks lived directly across Pat Drive from the property where the mobile home burned and when Henley was killed six months later. Brooks has been out on bond since July, 2022, and has moved to Calhoun County. His attorney, Bradley Peeples, told Judge Murphey during a status conference hearing back in April that the defendant was not interested in a plea offer.
“He’s not interested in any plea negotiations or offers, even if it involved time served and he could go home if he took a plea,” Peeples told the court.
Brooks’ wife, Melissa Brooks, has been adamant about his innocence. She told the Herald that the family has agreed to meet with Dateline NBC for an interview after the trial.
Sources report a Dateline producer has already made one trip to the county in preparation for covering the trial. Henley’s death made national headlines, fueled in part because she was a former state lawmaker and because of her sharp criticism into the investigation of her sister-in-law’s death. During the weeks preceding her murder, Henley had attracted wide attention by expressing growing frustration on social media.
