PHILADELPHIA, Miss.–You might remember when Demarcus Houston’s body was found weighted down in a pond in the Hope community in 2019. Monday James Kelly, Jr., goes on trial for murder.
Nine people were originally arrested for the crime. Last year Tyrone Braxton, 24, and Joanna Brook Gilmer, 26, took pleas on manslaughter charges and are serving prison time. Braxton got 20 years. Gilmer got 12.
That leaves Kelly as the only one to face a murder charge. The district attorney says Houston died of suffocation and was already dead when they put his body in the pond.
