PEARL RIVER COUNTY — A Pearl River County man convicted of killing a friend for his cash will spend the rest of his life in prison after Mississippi’s highest court refused last week to hear his case.
The Mississippi Supreme Court declined on April 22 to review Austin Brookshire’s conviction in the 2020 shooting death of Willie Jones, leaving intact a September appeals court ruling that upheld his life sentence.
Brookshire and his brother Dustin Gray were driving with Jones in the early morning hours of July 6, 2020, when Brookshire turned around from the front passenger seat and shot Jones, who was in the backseat listening to music with headphones.
The two brothers then stole a shoebox full of cash Jones had been displaying earlier that evening, dumped the murder weapon and Jones’s clothes in Lake Pontchartrain, bought shovels and bleach at a Slidell Lowe’s when it opened at 6 a.m., and buried Jones’s body in a shallow grave in a wooded hunting area in Pearl River County.
Jones’s family reported him missing, setting off an investigation that led police to Gray, who was eventually caught in Colorado and told detectives where the body was buried. Brookshire was arrested July 17, 2020, in Rankin County.
On appeal, Brookshire argued an investigator violated his constitutional rights by questioning him two days after his arrest, after he had already asked for a lawyer and before he had been formally charged or appointed counsel. The appeals court agreed the investigator crossed a constitutional line, noting he referenced Brookshire’s worried parents, told Brookshire that talking was his “only play,” and implied his brother had already told police everything.
But the court upheld the conviction anyway, finding the constitutional violation didn’t affect the outcome given the mountain of other evidence against Brookshire. That included his own confession to his younger brother Andrew, surveillance footage of him buying burial supplies, and the recovery of Jones’s body where Gray said it would be.
Andrew Brookshire testified against his brother as part of a plea deal.
The Supreme Court’s six-justice majority denied review without comment. One justice did not participate.
