Background: News coverage of a candlelight vigil for Jimmie Lee Pierce Jr. after his death in 2022 (WLBT). Inset left: Jimmie Lee Pierce Jr. (Artic Obits). Inset right: Le’Andrew Williams (Hinds County Detention Center).
A Mississippi teenager who pleaded guilty to shooting his mother’s boyfriend dead has been sentenced to decades behind bars.
In a post to social media on Tuesday, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens announced announced that Le’Andrew Williams, 19, was sentenced to 35 years in prison plus five years of post-release supervision after pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of Jimmie Lee Pierce Jr., 49. Pierce was shot in May 2022 while sitting outside his apartment complex in Jackson. Williams, who was 15 years old at the time, was one of three arrested in connection to his death.
According to court documents obtained by WJTV, a local CBS affiliate, Williams became angry with Pierce, who was dating his mother, and planned to confront him. WJTV reported that in the period leading up to the fatal altercation, Williams had been going through his mother’s phone and read explicit texts between her and Pierce.
Williams had originally planned on robbing Pierce at his home, and he got his cousin, 22-year-old Corey Hodge, and uncle, 27-year-old Bonny Fields, to help him carry out the act. WAPT, a local ABC affiliate, reported that a witness at the scene on May 16, 2022 saw Williams and Hodge approach Pierce and demand his wallet. The witness told the Jackson Police Department that Pierce told them, “We don’t have anything.” Williams then shot Pierce in the chest twice.
Pierce died of his injuries after being taken to a nearby hospital.
Williams, Hodge, and Fields all turned themselves in to police days after the shooting. Williams and Hodge were charged with capital murder; Fields was charged as an accessory after the fact.
Williams later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
