Incident likely self-defense, officials say
A Soso man who was going through a bitter divorce was shot outside his ex-wife’s house in the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, according to reports from local officials.
Jason Adam Marshall, 41, was pronounced dead at South Central Regional Medical Center by Coroner Burl Hall.
Marshall’s brother-in-law Christopher Davis is accused of firing the deadly shot, but the findings of the initial investigation indicate it was self-defense, Chief Jimmy McCoy of the Soso Police Department said.
“It’s just a bad situation,” he said, adding that the divorced couple’s three young children were in the house at the time of the shooting.
Marshall is accused of coming on the property, in violation of a court order, just before 4 a.m., and when Davis confronted him while holding an AR-15 rifle, Marshall reached for a 9mm handgun and Davis shot him, according to reports.
Constance Hope McRae Marshall had temporary custody of the children and she was granted an emergency domestic protection order in October after Jason Marshall was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation to have his visitation rights restored, according to an order signed by Judge Billie Graham in Jones County Chancery Court. That was the last document loaded into the lengthy case file.
The Jones County Sheriff’s Department is handling the investigation and the findings will be turned over to the Jones County District Attorney’s Office and presented to a grand jury.
Davis lives next door to the West Franklin Street home that his sister and Marshall shared for 12 years and were raising their children in. But she filed for divorce in March after a couple of disturbing incidents that were described in detail in filings in Jones County Chancery Court.
On Feb. 23, Marshall reportedly loaded a gun and threatened to kill Davis next door, and then on March 2, he got a gun and threatened suicide while the children were home, according to the divorce complaint his wife filed at the time. Law enforcement responded to the home in that incident and Marshall was transported to Pine Grove Mental Health.
Marshall had worked as an occupational therapist and was living in a mobile home at the 1200 block of Highway 28, where he was being allowed visitation with his children under the supervision of his parents, according to an order that was filed in July. He had repeatedly threatened to come get the children and take them to his parents’ home in Georgia to get them away from their mother. He claimed in court filings that she used illicit drugs and made illicit videos.
She accused him of “cruel and inhumane treatment” in addition to physical abuse. McCoy had been called to the house for disturbances three times in a period of about four months leading up to her filing for divorce, according to the court documents.
Marshall had served as an alderman and volunteer firefighter and owned a disaster-relief service, according to a Dec. 16 Leader-Call story about his running for mayor of Soso in a recent special election. He received five of the 137 total votes.
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