BROOKHAVEN — Marquis Aaron Flowers, shackled and wearing a yellow jumpsuit from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, shuffled slowly out of Lincoln County’s chancery courtroom after being bound over to the grand jury and denied bond Tuesday afternoon.
Lincoln County Justice Court Judge Roger Martin made those rulings after just one witness was questioned and cross-examined by Assistant District Attorney Diane Jones and defense attorney Price Henley of Jackson.
One stifled cry of relief issued from the crowd after Martin’s pronouncement that Flowers would remain in jail on two counts of murder and a charge of felon in possession of a firearm. Martin ordered no outbursts from the audience at the outset, and threatened to find anyone who did cause a disturbance in contempt of court.
Flowers is charged in connection with the shooting deaths of Brookhaven police offices James White and Zack Moak on Sept. 29.
Luke Harrington, a special agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation for six years, testified that he was called to the scene of the shootings about 5:13 that morning and arrived between 5:25 and 5:30.
Harrington said MBI took over the case, processed the scene at 620 N. Sixth St. and collected all the evidence, including a firearm believed to have been in Flowers’ possession and seen inches from his hand before he was moved to the back of an ambulance for assessment.
Firearms, bullet casings, DNA samples and other items collected at the scene were sent to the state crime lab, Harrington said, but no results have yet been returned.
Under cross-examination by Henley, Harrington said body camera footage showed Flowers shooting at Moak and White after they arrived in response to a 911 call about shots being fired in the area.
He said the footage showed Flowers firing at the officers first before the officers returned fire. He could not say how many times the officers fired because it was “hard to tell” from the camera footage.
It appeared Flowers was already wounded at that point, but able to stand, support his own weight and raise both arms, he said.
Harrington said he spoke to Flowers briefly in the hospital and was kept updated on his condition, but was not told how many times Flowers had been shot. Henley said he was shot eight times.
Harrington interviewed Flowers once more, for about 30 minutes, he said, and described what he was doing before the police shooting occurred. From that interview, he quoted Flowers as saying, “The cops were caught in my crossfire. It was bound to happen.”
Henley asked that bail be set and that presentation to the Lincoln County Grand Jury be delayed until the crime lab returns forensic results.
“There is body camera footage of Mr. Flowers shooting at the police officers,” Assistant District Attorney Brendon Adams said. “There is enough evidence to send this to the grand jury.”
Adams also pointed out Flowers’ criminal record, including conviction on eight counts of auto burglary in Pike County in 2012, the revocation of his post-release supervision in 2015, and an arrest for vehicle theft and felony fleeing in Natchez in March 2017.
A warrant was issued for Flowers after he failed to make a court appearance in Natchez in August.
Martin presided over the preliminary hearing after Brookhaven Municipal Court Judge Brad Boerner revealed that a member of his firm is handling the estate of one of the officers, and Henley requested that Boerner follow through on the recusal he offered.
“I had an inclination this may happen,” Boerner said before leaving the bench and making the immediate transfer to Martin and justice court.
A number of highway patrolmen and officers from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department and Brookhaven Police Department were in and around the courtroom during the hearing.
Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins lamented the officers’ deaths after the hearing.
“It’s just unfortunate that these two men were killed just trying to do their jobs,” Collins said.
