In the late summer of 2020, in the college town of Oxford, Mississippi, the life of 33-year-old Marisha Golden Ward was tragically cut short. On the afternoon of September 4th, the Lafayette County Sheriff's Department received a distressing call reporting shots fired in the College Hill area. When deputies arrived at the residence on County Road 1080, they found Marisha deceased from gunshot wounds.
The investigation quickly zeroed in on a person of interest thanks to a crucial witness
who had partially seen the incident and provided a description of the suspect and their direction of travel to 911 dispatchers. This information led law enforcement directly to Marisha's husband, Sherard Eugene Ward. He was apprehended and charged with her murder. The crime was particularly shocking as Sherard Ward had been released from the Lafayette County Detention Center just a day prior on a $5,000 bond for a separate and unrelated 'peeping Tom' charge.
Following his arrest for the murder of his wife, Sherard Ward was held at the Lafayette County Detention Center. A judge initially set his bond at $1 million, but it was subsequently revoked because he was already out on bail for the prior voyeurism charge. The case proceeded through the justice system, and in August 2023, a jury found Sherard Ward guilty of murder after a three-day trial.
For the murder of his wife, Marisha Golden Ward, Sherard Ward was sentenced to life in prison. He also received a concurrent five-year sentence for the voyeurism charge. In addition to his prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $6,500 to the Crime Victim Fund and cover court-related costs.
