Waffle House customers relive deadly Biloxi shooting. ‘I thought I was about to die.’
Johnny Max Mount had his gun cocked and ready to fire another round after he shot and killed Waffle House waitress Julie Ann Brightwell, a Biloxi crime scene investigator said in court Wednesday.
He had seven more rounds in his magazine.
Police found two additional magazines in Mount’s concealed belly ban holster, where he kept his 9 mm handgun, Biloxi police Sgt. Brian Wallace said.
In all, Mount had 32 rounds of ammunition the morning he shot and killed Julie Brightwell, a waitress at a Biloxi Waffle House restaurant.
Mount, 52, is on trial this week for first-degree murder in the Nov. 27, 2015, shooting death of Brightwell. The shooting happened after Brightwell told him he couldn’t smoke in the Highway 90 restaurant.
In video footage from the restaurant, Mount is seen getting out of his countertop seat, grabbing his gun from his holster, and leaning over the counter to shoot Brightwell. She died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
Assistant district attorneys Billy Stage and George Huffman are prosecuting the case. The prosecutors played the video footage of the shooting Tuesday, and the jury heard from several witnesses.
By lunch Wednesday, four more witnesses had testified.
Mount’s attorney, Jim Davis, is arguing an insanity defense, pointing out during opening arguments that Mount had a traumatic brain injury that affected his behavior.
‘I thought I was about to die’
Aubrey Moody had worked a Black Friday shift at Bella Rose Boutique before her fiance’, Brandon Blenden, picked her up, and the two of them, along with a couple of her coworkers, went to the Waffle House to eat.
Both would end up witnessing the shooting.
They were sitting in a booth near Mount when he started smoking and saw Brightwell go up to Mount to tell him he couldn’t smoke inside.
‘She was very respectful and talked to him in a polite manner,” Moody said. “She wasn’t raising her voice at all”
Brightwell suggested she go ahead and take his order so they could get his food ready while he went out to smoke if he wanted.
“‘Shortly after that, he got up and shot her,” Blenden said.
“She tried to hide behind the counter to get away,” he said, “and he still shot her.”
Afterward, Mount turned the gun on customers.
“He (Mount) swung the gun at us and asked if we had anything else to say,” Blenden said.
Blenden told his finance and the others to stay calm.
“I thought I was about to die,” Moody said.
Then, Mount walked outside and placed the gun and holster on the hood of Moody’s pickup truck.
Blenden took action, calling 911 to report the shooting.
‘I told them (police) what happened and then I hung up because he (Mount) was walking back in,” he said.
When Mount came back in, he went to the restroom.
Scene at Waffle House shooting: ‘Everyone, run’
The couple said they knew they had to make a move.
“I started screaming, ‘Everyone, run,’ and everyone ran out of the restaurant,’ Moody said.
Blenden saw Mount’s gun, grabbed it, and threw it in the back of his fiance’s truck.
But Moody didn’t want the gun anywhere near them.
“That freaked me out, so I asked him to get the gun out of the truck,’ she said..
Blenden took Mount’s gun out the truck and left it at the restaurant.
The couple and their friends got in Moody’s truck, and they drove to the other side of the highway to wait until the police arrived..
The couple could see Mount when they walked back out of the restaurant and stood there until Biloxi police arrived and arrested him.
After another witness testified about how Mount was competent to stand trial because he knew the difference between right and wrong, the state rested its case.
A break was called afterward to retrieve a Bible, a dictionary and a copy of The Cider House Rules that Mount requested prior to testifying in his own defense.
Check back with sunherald.com for updates.
