On the evening of March 24, 2016, a tragic event unfolded at a Jubilee gas station on Highway 80 in Jackson, Mississippi, that ended the life of 37-year-old Teletha Burks, a Black female. Burks was sitting in the driver's seat of her small SUV near the gas pumps when she was involved in an altercation with a man. The confrontation escalated, and the man shot her multiple times through the driver's side window.
Emergency services were called to the scene at approximately 7:06 PM. Burks received initial treatment from AMR paramedics before being transported to Merit Health Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival. The assailant, described as a man wearing jeans, red shoes, and a brown hooded jacket, fled the scene in a black Dodge Avenger.
Later that same evening, Jackson police officers located the getaway vehicle and detained Kendrick Bell in connection with the shooting. The investigation was aided by surveillance video from the gas station that captured the fatal encounter. Bell was subsequently charged with murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Kendrick Marques Bell was initially indicted for first-degree murder. However, in a plea agreement, the charge was reduced to second-degree murder. On August 18, 2018, Bell pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court of Hinds County to second-degree murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and shooting into an occupied vehicle. For the murder charge, he was sentenced to forty years in custody, with five years suspended and thirty-five years to serve, followed by five years of post-release supervision. He also received concurrent sentences of ten years for the firearm charge and five years for shooting into an occupied vehicle. Bell later filed a motion for post-conviction relief, claiming ineffective assistance of counsel, but the court denied his request and dismissed the motion.
