A Duck Hill man and a Kilmichael man both had their felony charges reduced to misdemeanor charges.
Jarvis Pittmon went before Judge Keith Stokes Roberts in Montgomery County Justice Court Tuesday morning. Pittmon was originally charged with aggravated assault along with three other men Jonquil White, Aldric Brown and Julian Cooley in the beating of Michael Ringgold, Jr.
White, Brown and Cooley are accused of beating Ringgold with a sledgehammer in the top of his head and their first at the intersection of Carrollton Street and Madison Street on July 6, 2021.
Ringgold was murdered months after the incident. His murder case is still under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Duck Hill Police Department and no arrests have been made in that case.
County Prosecutor Ryan Taylor said the investigation found that Pittmon was moreso a witness than he was a participant in the beating. He said one of the men has been indicted for their role in the July 6 beating.
Pittmon’s case was reduced to simple assault and he was remanded back into the custody of the Duck Hill Police Department.
A Kilmichael man had his charge of aggravated assault reduced to simple assault after it was found that even though he did attempt to do bodily harm, it didn’t fall under the Mississippi annotated code for aggravated assault.
Morgan Swanson of Kilmichael also went before Roberts Tuesday morning. Swanson struck James Nelms with a stick the size of a forearm while he was working on a vehicle.
Nelms said he does odds and ends to help out people in his neighborhood and on August 7 he was doing car maintenance for Betty Milgori.
“I was under the car when I was whacked,” he said. Nelms said he was on the passenger side of the vehicle fixing the tire when Swanson walked up and hit him. He said Swanson told him that “you got that girl messed up.”
“And I said ‘Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about,’” Nelms said. He said he and Swanson do not know each other and their first interaction was when Swanson hit him with the stick. He said the stick was about four to five feet and broke after Swanson struck him with it.
The “girl” he was referring to, Kilmichael Chief Barry Gregg said it was Milgori’s granddaughter who is the mother of Swanson’s child.
Nelms said Milgori came out of the home and Swanson then threw the stick at her. He said Swanson ran away yelling that he would kill Nelms and Milgori.
Gregg said that Swanson ran from the home and hid behind another near Milgori’s home.
There was a discussion as if what Swanson constituted as aggravated assault because Nelms didn’t go to the hospital. Nelms said there was bruising and he still has scratching from where the stick struck him.
Roberts agreed to reduce Swanson’s charge under the condition he has no contact with Nelms directly or indirectly, he is not to go on the premises of Dollar General in Kilmichael where Nelms is the manager and he has to take six consecutive classes of anger management.
