On a late December evening in Columbus, Mississippi, the life of 20-year-old Frank “Tut” O’Bryant Edwards was tragically cut short. On December 30, 2020, Edwards, a Black male, was in the front yard of a residence on 12th Avenue South when a vehicle, described as a gray or dark-colored Mazda with tinted windows, pulled up. An argument broke out between Edwards and the occupants of the car, which quickly escalated to an exchange of gunfire.
In the ensuing violence, Edwards was fatally shot and died at the scene. Another individual was also wounded during the shootout but survived.
The investigation into the shooting led Columbus police to identify Kenny Riheam Armistad, then 25, as the primary suspect. A warrant for his arrest on a murder charge was issued in March 2021, and he was taken into custody the following month. As the investigation continued, a second person, 40-year-old Terry Brooks, was arrested in August 2021 and charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Authorities believed there were potentially two other individuals in the vehicle at the time of the shooting. A crucial piece of evidence in Brooks's arrest was surveillance footage that captured the suspects' Mazda fleeing the scene.
In November 2021, a grand jury indicted Kenny Armistad on charges of murder, felon in possession of a weapon, and two counts of aggravated assault. The indictment revealed that the weapon used in the shooting was an AR-15 style rifle. During Armistad's trial in February 2023, prosecutors presented compelling evidence against him. This included the recovery of the murder weapon from the yard of a church along Armistad's escape route, which was forensically linked to the crime. Furthermore, incriminating text messages and a picture of the rifle were discovered on Armistad's phone.
After a weeklong trial, the jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Kenny Armistad guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and one count of possession of a weapon by a felon. Circuit Court Judge Lee Howard Jr. subsequently sentenced him to life in prison plus an additional 50 years. An appeal filed by Armistad, which argued that the jury should have been given instructions on self-defense, was later denied by the Court of Appeals. The prosecution successfully contended that the defense's claim that Armistad was not even at the scene negated the possibility of a self-defense argument.
