In the fall of 2020, Kenneth Wayne Mason, a 52-year-old man, returned to his hometown of Greenville, Mississippi, to care for his mother during the pandemic and to work on a book. A native of Greenville, he had spent many years in New York City, where he was a popular maître d' at the Waverly Inn and co-founded a non-profit organization called the Stop Abuse Campaign, dedicated to preventing child abuse.
On October 21, 2020, his life was tragically cut short when he was found shot to
death on the side of Blaylock Road in Washington County. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds, and his vehicle, a maroon Chevy Trailblazer, was missing. Investigators later determined that the motive for the murder was robbery.
A week after the discovery of Mason's body, law enforcement officers conducted a traffic stop on his stolen vehicle on Tampa Drive in Greenville. Inside the SUV were three individuals who were subsequently taken into custody. The suspects were identified as 18-year-old Donnell Corbin and 20-year-old Devonte Jones, both from Greenville, and 21-year-old Fredrick Pearson Jr. of Indianola. Initially, all three were charged with capital murder.
As the legal process unfolded, there were developments in the cases against the accused. In August 2023, Frederick Pearson Jr. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his role in the shooting and was sentenced to forty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with thirty-five years to serve. In April 2024, another individual, 24-year-old Shamarlon Jones of Greenville, pleaded guilty to charges of accessory after the fact, tampering with physical evidence, receiving stolen property, and credit card fraud. The investigation revealed that after Pearson shot Mason, Jones and Corbin assisted in attempting to disguise the stolen vehicle by spray painting the wheels and changing the license plate. They also used Mason's credit and debit cards. Jones was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, with ten years to serve. The case against Donnell Corbin for his alleged role in the events following the murder was still pending.
