GLOSTER — The owner and pastor of Brushy Creek Ranch faces a court date on unrelated charges of livestock theft and simple assault.
Chris Kimball, 40, who runs the horse ranch and accompanying ministry at 5939 East Homochitto Road, faces a preliminary hearing on the livestock charge and a trial on the assault charge, both in Amite County Justice Court at 1 p.m. June 5
Kimball was charged with felony livestock theft May 13 and got out of jail on $10,000 bond, according to Amite County jail records.
Lorri Bullock of Osyka, who filed the complaint, told sheriff officials she left her horse at the ranch and returned to learn it had been sold in January or February. She put the horse’s value at $1,500.
The sheriff’s department contacted the Mississippi Department of Agriculture, which located the horse and brought it back, officials said.
In the assault case, Kimball and Paul Punzo, 51, same address, were accused of striking fellow ranch employee and church member Mark Ross with their fists at an elders and deacons meeting in the ranch chapel on April 22.
Kimball and Punzo were arrested April 30 on the misdemeanor charges, and each got out on $653 bond.
l’s attorney Alfred Felder of McComb declined to comment. Kimball was unavailable for comment as well.
Kimball bought the 54-acre ranch in 2015. Located in the Homochitto National Forest, it accommodates campers and horse riders and holds a variety of horse-related events. Kimball also leads Outlaw Ministries and is pastor of a “cowboy church” at the ranch.
On April 1, Ross told Amite County supervisors he and his wife had been put in charge of managing ranch operations and wanted to promote more local involvement. He said more than 400 people were baptized in Brushy Creek at the ranch last year.
