A Kilmichael woman is the second person charged in connection with the April 27 shooting death of Joseph Purnell.
Monica Murry, 25, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact, a felony charge, shortly after the preliminary hearing of David Maurice Johnson, who stands accused of shooting Joseph Purnell, 38, of Kilmichael. Murry was in the court gallery when she was taken into custody.
According to court documents, Murry was arrested and charged after Eva Purnell, mother of the murder victim, filed an affidavit with Montgomery County Justice Court.
At Johnson’ preliminary hearing, Bradley Edmondson, an investigator with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, testified that Johnson and Murry met Purnell in the parking lot of a laundromat, located at 502 Rutherford Avenue in Kilmichael, around 8 p.m. the night of April 27 to make a custody exchange of Murry and Purnell’s two small children.
Edmondson stated that, based on witness statements, Murry and Purnell were allegedly in an ongoing feud and had gotten into physical altercations in the past.
Edmondson testified that the night of the shooting, Johnson accompanied Murry to meet Purnell, and once there, Murry and Purnell got into an altercation. It was during this time that a .38 revolver was taken from the glove compartment of Murry’s vehicle, and Purnell was shot in the chest.
Purnell was declared dead at the scene by Montgomery County Coroner Allan Pratt, and he was taken to the Mississippi Crime Lab in Pearl for autopsy.
Edmondson said preliminary autopsy reports show that homicide was the cause of death. One bullet was recovered.
Edmondson, who was called in by the Kilmichael Police Department to assist in the investigation, said he responded to the scene of the crime in Kilmichael before heading to Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital in Winona to interview Johnson, who had been shot in the hand.
“Johnson admitted to having fired the gun, but he did not admit to firing at Mr. Purnell,” Edmondson said. “One shot was fired out of a five-round chamber.”
Edmondson said Johnson received a gunshot wound to his left hand during the altercation, with entry at the base of the thumb and the exit near the palm. Edmondson said Johnson stated that he wounded himself when he fired the gun.
Edmondson said the alleged murder weapon was recovered not far from Purnell’s body in the parking lot of the laundromat, and it is being tested at the Mississippi Crime Lab to see if it fired the fatal bullet. A match between the recovered bullet and possible murder weapon is still pending.
Following the testimony of Edmondson, Montgomery County Justice Court Judge Larry Bamberg bound the case over to the action of a Montgomery County Grand Jury. Bond was continued at $250,000, and Johnson remains in the custody of the Carroll Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility in Vaiden.
Johnson was represented by attorney Leon Johnson of Grenada.
In the case against Murry, Bamberg set bond at $10,000, and set her preliminary hearing for June 12.
