JUDGE SENTENCES FORMER MISSISSIPPI PROSECUTOR TO 41 MONTHS FOR BRIBERY

US District Judge Daniel Jordan sentenced former Hinds County district attorney Jody Owens to 41 months in prison on Thursday over a bribery scheme involving city contracts in Jackson, Mississippi. The court also ordered Owens to pay a $100,000 fine. Jordan told the hearing that Owens had solicited $250,000 in bribes to rig the bidding process. “I can’t begin to tell you the shame I feel,” Owens said in court.

Court documents linked the scheme to a proposed hotel development at Jackson’s city centre convention centre. The indictment accused Owens of accepting bribes during an undercover FBI operation involving people posing as property developers. It also accused him of facilitating more than $80,000 in bribes to former Jackson mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, former city council president Aaron Banks and former council vice president Angelique Lee. Prosecutors alleged that the payments secured their help in advancing the development project.

Banks also received a prison sentence of almost four years on Thursday in connection with the scheme. Lumumba pleaded guilty last summer to one count of conspiracy, and his sentencing is scheduled for 20 November. Lee and Sherik Marve Smith, a relative of Owens, pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in 2024. The Mississippi Supreme Court disbarred Owens after he resigned as district attorney, and Brad McCullouch now holds the post on an interim basis. Darla Palmer and Gwen Agho advanced in Tuesday’s election to a 1 December runoff to choose the county’s next chief prosecutor.