By Billy Davis

Panola County authorities announced late Monday that a 17-year-old charged with murder in an alleged hit-and-run is also charged with burglarizing a church.

Sheriff’s investigators allege Matthew Whitten Darby struck and killed a middle-aged pedestrian, Johnny Lee Butts, Sunday morning near Como.

Investigators also allege Darby and two others, a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old, struck Butts as they were fleeing the church, said Sheriff Dennis Darby.

A news station in Memphis identified the church as Ebenezer M.C. Church near Como.  

Butts was struck and killed along Highway 310 East, near Blue Room Road, reportedly while enjoying his daily morning walk. He was 61.

Butts lived in the area of Smart Road.

At the scene of the hit-and-run, deputies and investigators found pieces of the missing automobile and put out word they were seeking a white Monte Carlo.

A tip led law enforcement to Darby’s home in Senatobia and the teenager turned himself in to the Panola County Sheriff’s Office a short time later, said sheriff’s investigator Bill McGee.

“His father drove him to the sheriff’s office,” McGee said.

Darby is in the Panola County jail log with an address listed as 1054 Highway 51 South, Senatobia.

Investigators would not release Darby’s name because he is a juvenile but McGee confirmed the name when The Panolian asked about a juvenile in the jail log from Senatobia.

Butts died at the scene of the hit-and-run, said Panola County coroner Gracie Grant-Gulledge.

Gulledge said Pate-Jones Funeral Home of Senatobia will be in charge of arrangements but a spokesman for the funeral home said family members have not contacted them.