On the afternoon of December 31, 1981, Mississippi Highway Safety Patrolman Billy M. Langham, a 37-year-old male, was on duty when he was killed on U.S. Highway 49 within the city limits of Collins in Covington County. He had stopped a vehicle that was speeding. The car was occupied by four men. During the stop, Trooper Langham noticed a butcher knife on the front seat of the car.
After removing one of the occupants from the vehicle to conduct a search, he also took the knife and placed it on the roof of his patrol car. As he was searching the car, one of the men grabbed the knife and began stabbing him in the back. Trooper Langham attempted to draw his service weapon but was overpowered by the men. He was then fatally shot with his own revolver. The gunshot wound was determined to be the cause of death, though the stab wound between his shoulder blades was also severe.
The four men fled the scene, but they were pursued by witnesses. About an hour later, the suspects, identified as Samuel Bice Johnson, Otis Lee Fairley, Charles Montgomery, Jr., and Anthony Fields, were apprehended when they tried to run a roadblock south of Collins.
Following the investigation, the four men were charged in connection with the murder. Samuel Bice Johnson was identified as the one who stabbed and shot Trooper Langham. He was initially sentenced to death, but after being granted a new trial, his sentence was changed to life in prison on October 26, 1992. He later died in prison in 2009. Otis Lee Fairley and Charles Montgomery, Jr. were also convicted of capital murder and each received life sentences. Fairley was denied parole in 2024. Another one of the men was released from prison in 1989. The fourth individual died in prison on March 7, 2018. At the time of the incident, Trooper Langham had been with the Mississippi Highway Patrol for eight years.
