Autopsy says heart attack; Tchula police chief says homicide

Tchula police are charging five men with second degree murder even though the autopsy on the victim shows he died of natural causes.

As of Tuesday night, three of the five were in custody, Tchula Police Chief Kenneth Hampton said.

Clarence Blue, 44, a double amputee who used a wheelchair, was found by his mother and his son in a pool of blood in the street near his home in Tchula in late May, said his mother Essie Blue.

Kamechie Coffer, 18, Devonte Pepper, 17, and Kajarius Anderson, 18, were in custody as of Tuesday morning. Hampton said he's still looking for Aavon Coffer, 20, and Daqurius Lockett, 16.

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Officials from the Department of Public Safety say an autopsy from the Crime Lab shows no trauma except a laceration to the front of his head, and that Blue died of "coronary artery atherosclerosis" or heart disease. Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard, who didn't see the body, could only say Blue died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, and that the autopsy results came back as natural causes.

Essie Blue said that when she found him, he had "holes" in the back of his head, and he told her, "I can't believe my friends would do this."

"He was laying in a puddle of blood, and he didn’t have any pants on," she said. "The only thing he had on was his shorts, that’s the only thing he had on was his shorts. I hated to see him like that."

"As far as addressing the autopsy report, it’s a load of crap. I’m not going to sugarcoat it," Hampton said. "Either they examined the wrong body, or they examined the wrong body."

DPS officials said crime lab medical examiners stand by their autopsy.

Hampton said evidence collected at the scene was covered in blood.

"My officers collected bloodstained T-shirts and pants. There was about a three-foot puddle of blood, his truck had blood in it, his wheelchair had blood in it, and his mother said when she tried to hold him in her arms, her fingers almost went into his skull from the back. He sustained severe trauma, all that will come out in court. We have pictures, we have evidence."

The mothers of the five suspects say their sons, who were initially accused in an unrelated breaking-and-entering case, had nothing to do with it.

"My son said he doesn’t know anything about it ... he don't know nothing about that man," said Linda Day, Kamechie Coffer's mother.

Ann Pepper, Devonte Pepper's mother, said her son is being held in the Greenwood LeFlore County Jail because he's a juvenile. She said he's never had trouble with the law. Ann Pepper said when police came for her son, they brought him in on breaking-and-entering charges, and ended up charging him with murder.

She echoed Day's words.

"He doesn't know anything about that man," she said.

Kajarius Anderson's mother, Loretta Anderson, said she's concerned that Hampton's controversial language in his use of social media to call out suspects and rally community to help in locating them is "making my whole family look bad."

"I just want the truth to come out," she said.

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Tina Webster, mother of Aavon Coffer, said her son was arrested on the breaking-and-entering charges last month. She said she was shocked to hear of the murder charge.

"He said my son had confessed, but never said what he confessed to," she said. "The words on the screen were that they picked him up for murder."

Hampton said he believes they had enough to do with it that he's charging them with murder in spite of the autopsy findings.

"I'm confident he didn't die from a heart attack, and if he did die of a heart attack, it was only because he sustained trauma by beating from five individuals," Hampton said, holding that he has more than one confession. "They’re telling their moms one thing, and I’m hearing a whole different thing."

Essie Blue said Clarence Blue had gotten $900 from her to go to the doctor.

"I told him if you go to the hospital, don't carry your money, bring it back to me," she said. "He told me he would."

Hampton said information gathered from the suspects shows "their intention was to go rob Mr. Blue for money, and they also said they knew he had a gun. According to one of the guys in the interview, he said he had two guns, which one of them retrieved at the time of the robbery."

Essie Blue said Clarence Blue's wallet is nowhere to be found.

"The money I gave him, I don't know where it went. I don't know," she said. "I didn't see his pocketbook or credit cards or nothing."

She said her son, who had used a wheelchair for several years, was the kind of man who kept to himself but loved his family and "didn't bother anybody."

"He was a lot of fun, and he wasn't going to mess with nobody," she said. "They could have gotten his money and not beaten him like that."

Hampton said Blue's guns have not been found.

Day said she was told Clarence Blue was trying to get out of his truck to go in the house and he fell, so injuries would have been from falling out of the truck.

"This man takes it upon himself that the kids beat him and that’s what killed him. How could you do that to kids? It makes no sense," she said.

But according to police, the suspects told them differently.

"Going by what one of the guys stated, he was pulled out of the truck — other details corroborated that," Hampton said.

The truck has been impounded.

"On video, two I have in custody at this moment, the last thing I asked them was, 'If you could say anything to Mr. Blue's mother, what would that be?'" Hampton said. "They apologized."

Essie Blue learned over the weekend of the autopsy findings, Hampton said.

"She told me she wasn’t going to give up, and she told me not to give up, and I said I was going to find the persons who did this to her son," he said.

On Monday, Hampton took his findings to the Holmes County district attorney's office to be sent to grand jury.

"We have no comment at this time," said Linda Jefferson, of the DA's office, when asked if they would be presenting the case.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.