Man held without bond for arson not charged in death of former lawmaker Ashley Henley or her sister
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Jun. 22—WATER VALLEY — A Yalobusha County man is being held without bond, charged with the December 2020 arson of a trailer at the Water Valley Boat Landing connected with — but as of yet, not related to — the death of a former state lawmaker.
Billy Brooks, 42, has not been charged with the Dec. 26, 2020, death Kristina Michelle Jones, 33, whose body was discovered inside the trailer. Nor has he been charged in connection with the June 13 fatal shooting of Jones' sister-in-law, former state Rep. Ashley Henley, 40, as she was cutting grass outside the burned out trailer.
Yalobusha County Sheriff Mark Fulco released a brief statement, Monday, saying Brooks had been arrested and charged with first degree arson for the fire at the trailer located at 12 Patricia Drive. Brooks was booked into the Yalobusha County Jail around 5:30 p.m. on June 18. He is being held without bond.
Brooks lived across the road from the trailer. The nature of the relationship between the neighbors is not known.
With the community wanting to know if there is a connection between the arson and the death of the two women, Fulco scheduled a Monday afternoon press conference to release "more details about this arrest and investigation." That press conference was cancelled a couple of hours before its scheduled start time.
Instead, the sheriff released a short statement Monday evening:
"The investigations into the death of Kristina Michelle Jones and the subsequent death of Ashley Henley are active and ongoing," Fulco wrote. "To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigations, there will be no further comment at this time."
While the sheriff has been reluctant to comment, Brooks' wife took to social media to support her husband. On the North Mississippi Herald's Facebook page, Melissa Stewart-Brooks said her husband called 911 in December and, as a former firefighter, attempted to enter the trailer to rescue the victim, but was driven back by the heat.
She said investigators have looked at Brooks before but found no evidence against him.
"All I know is he's innocent until proven guilty," she wrote. "They did some serious investigating on him after the fire and (found) nothing. Then the night of the shooting they did a gun powder residue (test on him) and again (found) nothing."
She said her husband doesn't own a gun.
Henley and her husband, Brandon Henley, believed Jones died as the result of foul play and have been critical of Yalobusha County authorities, especially Fulco and coroner Ronnie Stark.
"My sister was murdered and her body was burned. We know she was dead before the fire and that the fire was arson," Brandon Henley wrote in an April 6 post. "And we didn't find out any of that information from the Sheriff's department."
The Henleys were further upset when the death certificate, issued May 21, listed the cause of death as "unknown" and the manner of death as "undetermined."
This spring, the family erected a memorial on the Patricia Drive property. The memorial is a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood featuring pictures of Jones with the words "I WAS MURDERED" in nearly foot-tall letters.
Henley, who lived about 75 miles away in Southaven, had travelled to Yalobusha County June 13 to do yard work at the Patricia Drive property, which is still owned by the family. She was reportedly running a string trimmer when she was shot a single time in the back of the head.
Yalobusha County deputy sheriffs found her body around 10 p.m. outside the burned out trailer.
Ashley Henley served in Mississippi House from 2016 through 2020. She represented District 40, which includes Horn Lake and Southaven in DeSoto County. She lost her bid for a second term by just 14 votes.
