By Billy Davis

Panola County’s narcotics task force, dressed in suits and ties, and prepared for a jury trial, filed into a Batesville courtroom Monday to watch the man who tried to run them over plead guilty to the crime.

Kevin Hines, 33, entered a guilty plea to one count of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

After Hines entered his plea, Judge Andrew C. Baker dismissed the jury pool then sentenced Hines to eight years in state prison.

Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale, describing the felony crime for the court, said task force members, using a confidential informant, were conducting a drug sting on March 28 of last year on Kyle Road.

The task force sting apparently soured when the informant, pressed by Hines, agreed to smoke crack cocaine after the buy, court testimony showed.

According to Hale, task force members, fearing for the informant, then decided to raid the scene.

Hines, behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Suburban, tried to run them down as he fled. He pulled over farther down the road and was arrested.

Hale told the court Monday that officers flashed their badges and identified themselves, but two of them, Zabe Davis and Bill McGhee, were in immediate danger of being run over by Hines.

Hines “had plenty of time and plenty of room to go around them. He did not,” Hale said.

Davis, McGee and Nick Hughes fired 23 rounds at the Suburban as Hines drove at them, Hale told The Panolian after the court proceedings.

Hines was represented Monday by Tupelo attorney Bill Stennett. Stennett told the court that an “extensive investigation” by the defense attorney’s office supported the task force’s version of events and a trial would end with a guilty verdict.

Stennett may have also used information from a Miss. Bureau of Investigations (MBI) investigation of the shooting.

After the court proceedings, task force commander Jason Chrestman said Hines’ testimony showed that he put the officers in danger.

“They did everything they were supposed to do,” he said of the task force.

“We would do it all the same way,” added Chief Deputy Otis Griffin.

Hines is already serving a three-year prison sentence for the crack cocaine sale. His eight-year sentence will run concurrently with the three years, Baker said from the bench.