Jury takes minutes to convict Coast man for killing girlfriend. ‘This was an execution.’

Jeremy Childress held his right arm high above his head and used a finger-gun hand gesture to mimic how he had his .357 Magnum cocked and pointed down at his girlfriend when he shot and killed her.

Childress said he grabbed the gun that killed his longtime girlfriend, Michelle Hester, after she first pulled a knife on him and then a gun in the kitchen and dining area of their shared Saucier home.

Hester died of a single gunshot wound to the top of her head on the evening of Aug. 27, 2021.

When Harrison County sheriff’s deputies found her dead, she was sitting upright in a utility room.

Harrison County investigators found 23 guns in the home but did not find any weapon — gun, knife or otherwise — on or around Hester when they found her body.

State medical examiner, Staci Turne, said she died of a gunshot wound to the top of her head.

On the third day of his first-degree murder trial in Harrison County Circuit Court in Gulfport, Childress testified in his defense, saying the gun “discharged” while he was in a drunken rage.

“I wasn’t planning to shoot her,” he said. “She had pulled a gun on me.”

At the time of the killing, the two were arguing about their children from previous relationships

Defense attorneys Alan Green, Philip Wittman and Tyler Ladner argued that while Childress admits to shooting and killing Hester, the shooting was not intentional and the jury should find him guilty of the lessor offense of manslaughter..

“They were fighting, they were arguing, they were at each other,” Wittman said. “Mr. Childress had that gun, and it went off. We are not asking you to find him not guilty.”

Harrison County prosecuting attorneys Ian Baker and Patricia “Patti” Simpson said Childress deliberately shot and killed Hester after she told him the relationship was over, told him he had to move out, and locked her out of the home.

Childress allegedly shattered the sliding glass door with a motorcycle helmet, got back in, and found Hester hiding in the utility closet, where he shot and killed her as she crouched down on the floor.

“This was an execution,” Baker said. “It’s a first-degree murder every day and twice on Sunday.”

The jury deliberated for just minutes Thursday afternoon before finding Childress guilty of first-degree murder. Judge Randi Mueller sentenced him to an automatic life sentence..

A drunken brawl at Saucier home

Childress, a pipe-fitter, described his version of events the day of the Aug. 27, 2021, murder.

The Coast man said and he and Hester put a tarp over a camper outside after he got home from work because Hurricane Ida was barreling toward the Mississippi Coast.

He said he then showered, and he and Hester started drinking —him Bud Light beer and her Jose Cuervo tequila. He said drinking alcohol was “an everyday occurrence” for them.

After eating dinner and listening to some music, he said they started talking about their children and how Childress wanted to go home to Neshoba County to see his kids.

“She didn’t want to leave because a storm was coming in case something happened to her house,” Childress said. “She was telling me how to handle mine. I said, ‘Why don’t you get yours to show us a little respect., You know, he (one of Hester’s sons) didn’t show much respect for his mom.”

Hester was furious, Childress said, and the fight escalated. until Hester allegedly grabbed a kinfe and then a gun and threatened him.

Childress said once she pulled the weapons on him, he went to a back bedroom, grabbed his .357 Magnum, cocked the hammer and the ended up in the utility closet arguing face-to-face until the gun went off.

Childress said he realized Hester was shot when she fell to the ground and landed upright next to the door in the utility room.

Afterward, he testified he walked aside and didn’t realize until after he shut the door that he had locked himself out.

Prosecutors said Hester had actually told Childress the relationship was over and locked out of he home.

But Childress said once he realized he was locked out, he grabbed a motorcycle helmet and used it to shatter the back sliding door to get back inside to get his wallet.

From there, he said he decided to head to Neshoba County because he wanted ”to leave, go see my momma and tell her good-bye because I wanted to commit suicide.”

Neshoba County sheriff’s deputies managed to talk Childress out of death by suicide and took him into custody there.

Harrison County sheriff’s deputies later took him into custody on the first-degree murder charge. After his arrest, he never told deputies Hester had pulled a knife on him, but never said she had a gun. That didn’t come up until Childress said it in his testimony Thursday.

Simpson asked Childress how he could forget to tell authorities Hester had pulled a gun on him.

“Whenever they were questioning me, I was hurt over losing her,” Childress said. “I was wanting to commit suicide. I couldn’t remember everything that happened at that moment.”

“But you could remember her pulling a knife on you,” Simpson fired back. “You can remember shooting her on the top of the head. You can remember breaking the glass to get back inside. You could remember getting your wallet so you could get gas on the way to Neshoba County.”