In the early morning hours of February 23, 2017, the quiet of a Robinsonville, Mississippi street was broken by the sound of a car alarm and a fatal encounter. Olletta F. Jones, a 45-year-old woman from Newton, Mississippi, was found deceased, lying on the pavement next to a vehicle parked in the road. An investigation soon revealed she had been shot multiple times.
Deputies from the Tunica County Sheriff's Office responded to a shooting call on Casino Strip just before 5:15 a.m.
Upon their arrival, they discovered Ms. Jones's body outside the driver's side of a car. Her boyfriend, 33-year-old Joseph Earl Bland of Robinsonville, was still at the scene. Due to a familial relationship between Bland and a deputy, the Mississippi Highway Patrol was called in to assist with the investigation.
A witness reported being awakened by a car alarm and seeing a man and a woman, later identified as Bland and Jones, talking near the rear of the vehicle. The witness saw the woman walk to the driver's side and attempt to get in before seeing three flashes from the man's hand as the woman fell to the ground. Investigators found three spent. 45 caliber shell casings at the scene and recovered a semi-automatic pistol from the back seat of the car. Gunshot residue was later found on Bland's hands.
Joseph Bland was arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of Olletta Jones. During his trial, he claimed self-defense, stating that an argument had escalated and that Jones had pointed the gun at him first, pulling the trigger on an empty chamber before he wrestled the weapon from her and shot her. A Tunica County jury found Bland guilty of first-degree murder. He later appealed his conviction, arguing that the court had erred by excluding testimony about his post-traumatic stress disorder, but the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. His bond had been set at $1 million.
