Feb. 3 MISSISSIPPI: Haynes Won't Face Death Penalty Justin Haynes was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Janette Nowell plus an additional 50 years for sexual battery and 1t-degree arson. A Rankin County jury took just 30 minutes to reach the verdict just before noon Wednesday, and Circuit Court Judge Clarence E. Morgan III sentenced him immediately. "It is my intent that the jail door slam shut on you and never open again," Morgan told Haynes. The wording in the indictment against Haynes spared him his life. Acting on a defense motion, Morgan threw out the capital murder charge against Haynes on Monday, which eliminated the possibility of the death penalty. "There was a complaint about the wording of the indictment," District Attorney Doug Evans said when reached on his cell phone Tuesday after a day full of testimony. "It had to do with the words 'murder committed during the course of burglary.' "We could have reindicted," Evans continued, "but the family decided to go with the murder charge and life." Nowell, a 59-year-old Kosciusko woman who was confined to a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis, was raped and stabbed but died of smoke inhalation after her South Huntington Street home was burned last February, according to crime lab reports. Haynes, an Ethel native who turned 17 last month, was also accused of taking a .38-caliber pistol from Nowell's home and selling it to Barry Love. Love was one of about a dozen state's witnesses who testified Tuesday. Investigator Curtis Pope of the Kosciusko Police Department, Mark Hill of the Kosciusko Fire Department and crime lab officials also testified. DNA experts were to took the stand Wednesday morning. The jury, which wasn't sequestered, is made up of 11 white men and 1 white. The 2 alternates are white men. Evans said jurors saw photos, Haynes' confession, a piece of gray cloth from Nowell's home that matched a piece of cloth investigators found in Haynes' grandmother's car and a note at Nowell's home that had Haynes' fingerprints. Haynes' attorney, Andre DeGruy of the Office of Capital Defense, didn't return a call. (source: Kusciusko Star-Herald)
