Coast man armed with 2 guns admits to shooting girlfriend in the head, deputy testifies
The sliding glass door in the back of Michelle Hester’s home was shattered.
Inside the Saucier home, Harrison County sheriff’s deputies found the 52-year-old woman dead of a gunshot wound to the top of her head. Her body sat against the door inside the utility room.
Her boyfriend and accused killer, Jeremy Charles Childress, told deputies in Neshoba County he had shot her when they took him into custody in August 2021.
Childress, 48, is on trial this week for first-degree murder in the Aug. 27, 2021, domestic-violence-related Harrison County killing.
Harrison County assistant district attorneys Patricia “Patti” Simpson and Ian Baker are prosecuting the case before Judge Randi Mueller.
Attorneys Tyler Ladner, Philip Wittman and Alan Green are representing Childress.
After the killing, a drunk and distraught Childress drove to his mother’s home in Neshoba County, where he was ultimately taken into custody, authorities said.
Deputies arrest suspect hours away
Neshoba County Sheriff’s Deputy J.W. Jenkins Jr. and Sheriff Eric Clark were the first to learn Childress had allegedly shot and killed Hester.
Jenkins was the first to arrive at a call at the suspect’s mother’s home in Neshoba County, where deputies had received a report of a man with a gun threatening to die by suicide.
When Jenkins got there, he said he stopped his patrol car up the dirt road leading to the home, so Childress wouldn’t see him coming. The deputy didn’t want the man to see police lights headed that way.
Jenkins said he spotted Childress “pacing back and forth” with the barrel of a Glock 48 9 mm handgun in his mouth.
Jenkins recalled his first conversation with Childress during his testimony Tuesday.
“I said, ‘Man, you don’t need to do this in front of your mother,’” Jenkins said, telling Childress his mother “will have to live with that for the rest of her life.”
Jenkins talked to Childress until he placed the gun on the hood of his black Dodge truck.
“He went over and hugged his mother and sat there for a little while,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins retrieved the gun, but Childress walked back to the truck a few minutes later and grabbed a second gun,a .357 Magnum revolver, from the passenger seat.
“Same scenario again,” Jenkins said until Childress sat the second gun inside his truck and walked back over to his mother.
Confessing to domestic violence killing on the MS Coast
Neshoba County Sheriff Clark and another deputy arrived minutes after the first deputy.
Childress appeared to be drunk, he said, and deputies found an empty Bud Light beer can and empty whiskey bottle inside his truck.
Clark and Jenkins said that Childress confessed to the killing during the encounter.
“He said he had shot his girlfriend and that she was behind the utility room door, and he shot her in the top of her head,” Clark said. “He said he shot her with a .357 Magnum.”
Harrison County Patrol Capt. Rebecca Wright went to Hester’s home and found her dead in the utility room, just as Childress had described.
Inside, Wright said she saw what appeared to be some mail scattered on the floor near the dining area.
When defense attorneys asked if it appeared there had been a fight in the home, Wright said, “I can’t say a fight, but it was a mess.”
Testimony in the trial is continuing. Check back with SunHerald.com for updates.
