JACKSON, Miss. – A white teen charged with capital murder in the hit-and-run death of a black man in Mississippi is being held in isolation from other jail inmates.
Hinds County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Jeffery Scott says the publicity associated with the case of 19-year-old Deryl Dedmon of Brandon accounted for the decision to isolate him. Dedmon is charged with intentionally running over 46-year-old James Craig Anderson on June 26 in what authorities say was a hate crime.
According to Saturday's Clarion Ledger, Scott would not say whether Dedmon, who is being held without bond, has been threatened.
"Due to the amount of publicity associated with this case, jail administrators made the decision to separate Mr. Dedmon from the general population and felt that in order to maintain the level of order it was in our best interest," Scott said.
Meanwhile, the victim's sister says she's unhappy that Dedmon and John Rice, who is charged with simple assault in the case, are the only persons facing charges.
WJTV reports that Barbara Anderson Young told reporters at her lawyer's office Friday, "Go to Brandon and get the other five murderers who committed such a horrendous violent act against my beloved brother."
The district attorney's office says Dedmon and Rice were with a group of teenagers that morning and went out looking for a random black person to assault. The district attorney has said racial slurs were used during the attack and that Dedmon later bragged that he "just ran that n----- over."
Rice's attorney, Samuel Martin, suggested during a hearing in July that the teens were on a beer run after a night of partying, not looking for a black man to assault, as prosecutors allege.
Authorities have not ruled out that others at the scene could be charged. The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation of the case.
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