By Billy Davis

A reputed gang member whom police allege fired a fatal shot in a shootout last January has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Marico Fondren, of Sardis, entered the plea Wednesday in front of Circuit Judge Jimmy McClure, admitting he shot and killed rival gang member Jeremy Wright on Vance Street.

Fondren was facing a murder charge and apparently agreed to a manslaughter plea.

“The one person who was unarmed in the gang fight got struck in the back of the head,” BPD Detective Paul Shivers, referring to Wright, told The Panolian after the court hearing.
 
McClure sentenced Fondren to 15 years in prison. A second count of conspiracy was remanded as part of the plea deal according to court documents.

Attorney John Watson represented Fondren at the plea hearing and Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale presented the state’s case.

Three more defendants are awaiting trial this month for Wright’s murder, too, though authorities believe Fondren fired the shot that struck and killed Wright in the front yard of a home on Vance Street.

The co-defendants are Michael Dishmon, Marcus Wheatley, and Michael Fondren. Marico Fondren, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, is the youngest of the four.
 
After Wright’s death, Batesville police said they interviewed numerous witnesses and followed anonymous tips, learning that the Mafia Vice Lords had been feuding with the Gangster Disciples.

Detective Shivers, recalling the investigation, said a firearm was stolen at a nightclub, and automobiles were set on fire in retaliation. The feud spilled into a public street when a reputed Vice Lord member spotted Roderick Scurlock, a reputed Gangster Disciple, in the area of the Lester Street Apartments.

Authorities allege Sharika Harris saw Scurlock and alerted the Vice Lords, setting up the eventual shootout.

Harris and a second female, Latasha Taylor, are charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Shivers testified at a bond hearing last year that Harris and Taylor hid behind fellow Vice Lord members as the street confrontation escalated. 

The shooting occurred on January 16, 2012, Martin Luther King Day. The annual march that begins at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Panola Avenue had passed a block from Vance Street approximately an hour before the shooting.

An autopsy showed Wright was shot with a .223 round, a light-weight bullet used in so-called assault rifles. The volley of shots from the rifle could be heard across Batesville.

Authorities speculated the rifle used in the shooting was a Mini-14 that was stolen from a Panola sheriff’s deputy’s cruiser. The rifle has never been recovered by authorities.

Shivers said this week that the gang feud last year was not over territory. Fondren and the other three defendants are from Sardis but other gang members live in Batesville, he said.