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Thread: Thomas Elliot Stafford Sentenced to Life with the Chance of Parole in 2017 MS Murder of Jerry Floyd Kirkendall, Sr.

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Thomas Elliot Stafford Sentenced to Life with the Chance of Parole in 2017 MS Murder of Jerry Floyd Kirkendall, Sr.


    Thomas Elliot Stafford


    BY MARGARET BAKER
    The Sun Herald

    His roommate was found dead in a freezer. Now he could face death in a Jackson County trial.

    PASCAGOULA - A Jackson County grand jury has indicted an Oregon native on a charge of capital murder for allegedly strangling a man, stuffing his body into an unplugged freezer and stealing his Cadillac.

    Thomas Elliot Stafford, 41, is accused in the March 2017 killing of Indiana native Jerry Floyd Kirkendall Sr., 65.

    A man discovered Kirkendall’s body on March 20, 2017, in the freezer inside an Althea Street home in Jackson County’s Latimer community.

    Kirkendall was renting the home and Stafford had moved in.

    Neighbors said they had not seen Kirkendall in about two weeks before his body was found.

    Stafford is accused of killing Kirkendall during the commission of a robbery on or between March 3-20, 2017, court records say.

    Sheriff’s deputies said he was last seen by his landlord on March 3.

    Kirkendall’s Cadillac was stolen during the robbery and later recovered in Alabama.

    According to authorities, Stafford had sold the car to a cousin for some cash and a gun.

    Federal marshals arrested Stafford in Portland, Oregon, after conducting surveillance at the home of one of his associates.

    After his arrest in Portland, a woman called Portland Police to report that Stafford had stayed the night at her home and had given her a gun. She turned the gun over to authorities.

    Kirkendall had been living in the Jackson County home for about a month when the killing occurred.

    Stafford is tentatively set to go to trial Feb. 5.

    If convicted, he’s facing a penalty of up to life in prison without parole or the death sentence.

    Stafford is being held without bond at the Jackson County jail.

    At the time of the murder, Stafford was on probation for felony conviction of meth possession. A judge did not sentence him to any more jail time for the meth conviction for a probation violation, instead sending him back to Jackson County to face the capital murder charge here.

    http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/...192827449.html
    Last edited by CharlesMartel; 01-04-2018 at 10:23 AM.

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Jackson County murder suspect to face trial

    By WLOX Staff

    JACKSON COUNTY, MS (WLOX) - A suspect accused of strangling a man to death in Jackson County last year will soon face trial.

    Thomas Elliot Stafford, 40, is currently being held without bond at the Jackson County Jail on charges of capital murder following the death of Jerry Floyd Kirkendall.

    After holding an initial hearing in November, officials have confirmed Stafford's trial date for Feb. 5.

    Reports say Kirkendall, an Indiana native, was a tenant who lived in the house where his body was body and Stafford may have been his roommate at some point.

    Kirkendall's body was found stuffed in a freezer inside a home in the Latimer community on March 20, 2017. An autopsy revealed Kirkendall was strangled.

    U.S. Marshals arrested Stafford in Oregon later that week then extradited him to Mississippi.

    Stafford faces a sentence of up to life in prison without parole or the death penalty if convicted.

    http://www.wlox.com/story/37194583/j...-to-face-trial

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    Jackson County man sentenced life in prison after strangling roommate, putting body in freezer

    By Chet Landry
    WLOX News

    JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - A man charged with murder is going to jail after pleading guilty to strangling his roommate and putting his body into a freezer.

    Thomas Stafford admitted to strangling Jerry Kirkendall with a wire, stuffing him in a freezer, and leaving the state in the victim’s car in March of 2017.

    Stafford ended up in Oregon where he was arrested and extradited weeks after the murder happened in 2017.

    Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath asked for the charges against Stafford be reduced to first-degree murder at the request of Kirkendall’s family.

    “The victim, Jerry Kirkendall, was a gentle soul who loved life and never met a stranger. Unfortunately, within a month of meeting the defendant, the victim’s life was brutally taken. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department did an outstanding job investigating this case. I am proud that, together, we were able to get justice for this family,” McIlrath said.

    Before Stafford was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Kathy Jackson, he apologized for his crimes to the court, to Kirkendall’s family, and to his own family.

    Judge Jackson sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    However, Stafford will be allowed to petition the courts for parole after he has either served 15 years of his sentence or reaches the age 65, which, for Stafford, is more than 20 years away.

    Stafford has been in custody for more than three years and will begin serving his life sentence immediately.

    https://www.wlox.com/2020/12/01/jack...-body-freezer/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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