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(Left) Maj. Kelly McMillen escorts Michael Buffington Wells to the Marshall County Courthouse. (Right) McMillen and Sheriff Kenny Dickerson escort John Albert Williams Jr. to the Marshall County Jail.

Murder suspects apprehended

Two suspects in two separate murder cases were taken into custody last week with the assistance of agents with the Gulf Coast Fugitive Task Force (U.S. Marshals Service) and the Shelby County (Tenn.) Gang Unit, according to sheriff Kenny Dickerson.

Wednesday, Aug. 14, around 12:30 p.m. a suspect wanted in the murder of Frank Bolden Jr., a Benton County resident, was arrested without incident in Memphis, Tenn. Michael Buffington Wells, 44, was being sought as a suspect in that murder and also on a warrant for failing to appear for sentencing on an aggravated assault charge that took place at the Mt. Pleasant Truck Stop in 2015, the sheriff said.

Circuit court judge John Gregory sentenced Wells to 20 years in the state penitentiary in the assault case.

Wells has not yet been indicted on the charge of murder of Bolden that took place at 35 Pickens Drive in Marshall County on June 23. The case is expected to be presented to the Marshall County grand jury in October, according to Dickerson.

Wells was charged with aggravated assault that took place in December 2015. He was indicted by a Marshall County grand jury in 2016, and pled guilty to aggravated assault in November 2017.

Wells’ sentencing, after entering a plea of guilty in November 2017, was deferred until February 2018 on the aggravated assault charge. But Wells failed to appear for sentencing. He has been on the lam since, out on bond November 2017 while awaiting sentencing.

Agents, acting on a tip, arrested Wells at a residence off Rollings Road, Memphis, Dickerson said. He had been evading sentencing for one and a half years.

Wells’ bond was set Friday in Marshall County justice court by judge Mae Garrison at $2 million.

Murder suspect

arrested Thursday

Agents with the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Fugitive Task Force and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department arrested John Albert Williams Jr., a suspect in the murder of an Olive Branch resident, Jordan Stewart, earlier this year, the sheriff said. The incident took place on Beech Tree Cove in Byhalia.

Agents raided a house Thursday morning on Canal Ridge Road in Warsaw and Williams was taken into custody without incident. He had been evading arrest since June 28, Dickerson said.

Williams’ bond was set Friday in justice court by judge Mae Garrison at $2 million.

Four other suspects in this case are already in custody at the Marshall County jail, he said.

Stewart was found murdered in his car at the dead end of Beech Tree Cove.

The Marshall County grand jury is expected to take up this case in October.

Maj. Kelly McMillen, with the sheriff’s investigative team, said these and many other arrests are the results of tips from individuals who “saw something and said something.”

Suspects in five unsolved murders dating back to 2016 are still being sought. Rewards up to $15,000 are being offered in these cases for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of suspects in these five cases.

The cases are for the murders of Mark Hooper, Will Phillips Jr., Jamon Moton, Devon Hubbard and Melvin Brown.

Holly Springs South Reporter

P.O. Box 278
Holly Springs, MS 38635
PH: (662) 252-4261
FAX: (662) 252-3388
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