In the small town of Derma, Mississippi, the life of Deundray Hakeem Garth, a 28-year-old male, was cut short on September 17, 2020. Garth was at his home on Underwood Drive, where he lived with his fiancée, Chrishundra Hatchett, and her five children. On that Thursday morning, after staying up all night playing video games, Garth was asleep when Hatchett left for work in the afternoon. Later that day, he was found shot and killed inside his home.
The cause of death was determined to be two gunshot wounds, one to his upper arm and another to his upper back which proved to be fatal.
The investigation into Garth's death, led by the Derma police, Calhoun County deputies, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, soon pointed to two individuals. Wanya Harper, 24 years old at the time, and Ricco Davion Simmons were identified as suspects. According to law enforcement, Harper and another suspect went to Garth's home on the day of the incident. In October 2020, Wanya Harper was arrested and charged with murder. The investigation continued, and eventually, Ricco Simmons was also implicated in the crime. Simmons had fled to Detroit, Michigan, after the shooting but was extradited back to Mississippi in February 2022 to face a capital murder indictment.
The legal proceedings that followed brought some measure of justice for Deundray Garth's family. Simmons and Harper were indicted by a Calhoun County grand jury for capital murder, with the indictment alleging they killed Garth during the course of a burglary of his home. While they were indicted together, they were not tried jointly. Ricco Simmons's trial began on January 24, 2023. During the trial, his co-defendant, Wanya Harper, testified against him. The jury returned a unanimous verdict, finding Simmons guilty of capital murder. As a habitual offender, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
