In the summer of 2017, the quiet community of Walnut, Mississippi, was shaken by the deaths of two of its residents. Paul Joel Koster, a 51-year-old White male, and Ayla Roxanne Hopper, 29, were found deceased in their home on County Road 303 in the early morning hours of July 6, 2017. Koster, a self-employed roofing contractor who had lived in the area for 25 years after moving from California, was initially reported to have died unexpectedly.
However, the circumstances surrounding his and Hopper's deaths quickly turned into a double homicide investigation.
The joint investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and the Tippah County Sheriff's Department led to the arrest of four individuals in connection with the murders. Three of the suspects, Kedarius Hamer, 20, Nakero Hamer, 17, and Thomas J. Hamer, 17, were each charged with two counts of first-degree murder. A fourth individual, 21-year-old Terrenz Mason, was charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. The three Hamers were held without bond, while Mason's bond was set at $20,000.
In the years that followed, the legal process brought some resolution to the case. In June 2019, Kedarius Hamer, a resident of Bolivar, Tennessee, was found guilty of two counts of capital murder in the Tippah County Circuit Court. As the prosecution did not seek the death penalty, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Shortly after, Nakero Hamer was also found guilty and received the same sentence of life without parole for his role in the double homicide. The trials for the remaining suspects were to follow, leaving a lasting impact on the small Mississippi community.
