BROOKHAVEN — At Cory Godbolt’s preliminary hearing Wednesday, family members wept as an investigator described the response to a Memorial Day weekend shooting rampage that left eight people, including a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy, dead.
Cory Godbolt, 35, of 377 Brister St., Bogue Chitto has been charged with one count of capital murder and seven counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of deputy William Durr, Barbara Mitchell, Brenda May, Toccarra May, Jordan Blackwell, Austin Edwards and Ferral and Sheila Burage on the night of May 27 and the early morning hours of May 28.
Pike County Justice Court Judge Bryan Harbour, who was appointed to preside over the hearing after Lincoln County Justice Court judges stepped aside, bound the case over to the grand jury.
The courtroom was packed with family members, news media and law enforcement officers from numerous agencies.
The room fell quiet as Godbolt was escorted inside wearing a yellow polo shirt and khaki pants.
Jason Leggett, an investigator with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the only witness to testify Wednesday, described the response to the shootings as Durr’s widow, Tressie Hall-Durr, and relatives of the other victims wiped away tears.
Leggett said MBI agents responded to a house on Lee Drive after Lincoln County dispatchers reported losing radio contact with Durr.
“They said that there were shots fired and they believed that he was dead,” Leggett said.
He described a chaotic scene on Lee Drive.
“There were people everywhere,” he said. “I witnessed four bodies that were laying in the home” — Durr, Brenda May and Toccarra May, and Mitchell, who is Godbolt’s mother-in-law.
Leggett said he spoke with witnesses who identified Godbolt as the shooter.
Then lawmen received a call about another shooting on Coopertown Road, where lawmen found the bodies of Blackwell and Edwards, who are Godbolt’s cousins.
Leggett said witnesses there also identified Godbolt as the shooter.
Then another call came in from East Lincoln Road, where Legget found the bodies of Ferral and Sheila Burage and witnesses again pointed to Godbolt as the one who killed them.
Leggett said lawmen found weapons at the scene, including Godbolt’s pistol and another pistol owned by Ferral Burage, who is believed to have shot Godbolt in the arm before Burage died.
Godbolt was arrested near the East Lincoln Road home. At the scene of his arrest, a Clarion-Ledger newspaper reporter shot a video of him and asked him what happened.
On the video, Godbolt said, “My pain wasn’t designed for him. He was just there.”
Godbolt, facing a charge that carries the death penalty, also said on the video, “My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran out of bullets. Suicide by cop was my intention. I ain’t fit to live, not after what I done.”
Defense attorney Gene Sermos and Paul Luckett are representing Godbolt.
He is being held without bond in the Copiah County Jail.
