Photo by Donna Campbell/Accused murderer Willie Cory Godbolt sits silently during a status hearing May 2018 in Lincoln County Circuit Court.

A man on death row for murdering seven friends and family members as well as a sheriff’s deputy while on a shooting rampage in 2017 will be back in Brookhaven on Monday for a hearing to determine if he’s indigent, or impoverished.

Willie Cory Godbolt, 43, will get a one-day break from Unit 29 at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. He’s set to be brought by the Mississippi Department of Corrections to the Lincoln County-Brookhaven Government Complex at 10:30 a.m. for his hearing before Circuit Judge David Strong at 11 a.m. He is to be returned to Parchman by MDOC immediately following the hearing.

Because the Mississippi Supreme Court denied Godbolt’s motion for rehearing in May 2024, the Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel appointed counsel to provide representation to Godbolt in post-conviction proceedings.

By law, Lincoln County Circuit Court has until July 11 to determine whether Godbolt is indigent and whether he desires appointment of counsel. 

According to an order signed May 12 by Justice Robert P. Chamberlin, in the event Godbolt does not want counsel, the circuit court will determine whether he otherwise is represented by counsel or has, under the provisions of Mississippi Rule of Appellate Procedure, made an informed and voluntary election to proceed pro se, or rather to argue in his own behalf.

In March 2024, the Supreme Court of Mississippi upheld Godbolt’s convictions and sentences.

On May 27, 2017, in what began as a domestic altercation, Godbolt shot and killed Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy William Durr; Barbara Mitchell, the stepmother of his estranged wife Sheena; Sheena’s sister, Tocarra May; Sheena’s aunt, Brenda May; two minors who were children of friends of Sheena, Jordan Blackwell and Austin Edwards; and Ferral and Sheila Burage.

In March 2018, Goldbolt was indicted by a grand jury on 12 counts: four counts of capital murder for Durr, Blackwell, Edwards, and Sheila Burage; four counts of first-degree murder for Tocarra May, Brenda May, Barbara Mitchell, and Ferral Burage; and two counts of kidnapping for Lapeatra Stafford and Xavier Lilly, a minor. On Feb. 25, 2020, a jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts.

On Feb. 27, 2020, Godbolt was sentenced to death for all four of the capital murder convictions. He was given life in prison sentences for each of the four first-degree murder counts; the attempted murder of Deputy Tim Kees; and the kidnapping of Lilly. He was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for the kidnapping of Stafford, and 20 years for armed robbery.