Lawsuits on hold until accused police officer returns from deployment

Lici Beveridge
Hattiesburg American
Hattiesburg Police Department detective Neal Rockhold testifies in a murder trial in Lamar County Circuit Court in this May 2017 file photo.

Two men previously accused in a 2015 homicide filed separate lawsuits in federal court against a Hattiesburg police detective who they say would not drop the charges even when they had proof they were somewhere else when the murder took place.

And the men were still considered suspects for months after three others were indicted for the same crime, the lawsuits say.

But the men, Keith Lee and Arthur Jones Jr., both of Gulfport, will have to wait for their day in court since the detective, Sgt. Neal Rockhold, has been deployed by the military.

U.S. District Magistrate Michael Parker signed the orders May 20 to stay the cases until January.

The men say they were wrongly accused in the death of 17-year-old Collins football player Jabarri Goudy, who was shot multiple times outside a Hattiesburg nightclub on July 5, 2015. 

Jones initially was charged with Goudy's murder, even though "the plaintiff was not even present in the city of Hattiesburg at the time of the murder," the lawsuit says.

Lee was charged with accessory after the fact of murder, even though he and Jones say they were at a Gulfport nightclub with a third person, Montrell Lee of Gulfport, at the time Goudy was killed.

The lawsuits contend there was videotape evidence that shows the men were at the Gulfport club when the shooting took place.

Jones and Lee say they spent more than nine months in jail and two years as suspects.

Andreco Deshun Guston

The lawsuits claims the men were never told there were other suspects, even after another Andreco Deshun Guston of Heidelberg was indicted in 2017 for second-degree murder for Goudy's death.

Montrell Lee, Nijah Dshun Gray-Lane of Biloxi and Stokes Wells of Collins also were charged, but were not indicted.

Guston later pleaded guilty and is serving 12 years of a 30-year sentence with the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He is serving a six-year sentence for burglary and aggravated assault for an unrelated crime.

Two others, Jeremy McKenzie and Tyhecia Bender, were charged with accessory after the fact of murder. 

McKenzie's case is still going through the court system. He is being held in Jasper County Jail on an unrelated murder charge from a shooting incident that took place in March 2018.

Bender pleaded guilty to her role in Goudy's death, but her plea is being held for five years. If she commits no other crimes during that time, her plea will be non-adjudicated, which means it will not be part of her criminal record.

Jones and Keith Lee say in their lawsuits they do not know Guston or McKenzie.

The men are accusing Rockhold and the city of Hattiesburg of violating their civil rights, false imprisonment and reckless disregard, including malicious prosecution, abuse of process, negligence and slander.

The city and Rockhold deny the allegations.

"The lawsuits are baseless allegations, not evidence," said attorney Clark Hicks, who represents Rockhold and the city. "We look forward to defending the officer and city and will seek a dismissal of the case."

Attempts to reach attorneys for Jones and Keith Lee were unsuccessful.

Contact Lici Beveridge at 601-584-3104 or Follow her on Twitter @licibev

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