Mike Andrews, Mississippi sales rep for MLILY Mattress, helps Bruce Sloan and William Alexander, owner of Alexander's in Bay Springs, Mississippi, during opening day of the Tupelo Furniture Market on Feb. 14, 2023.
Mike Andrews, Mississippi sales rep for MLILY Mattress, helps Bruce Sloan and William Alexander, owner of Alexander's in Bay Springs, Mississippi, during opening day of the Tupelo Furniture Market on Feb. 14, 2023.
Eddie Hamrick, with Simply Bunk Beds in Haleyville Alabama, shows customer Elizabeth Falconer, of Position by Design in Aledo Texas, how easy it is to move the mattress around on one of his bedding sets during opening day of the Tupelo Furniture Market.
Eddie Hamrick, with Simply Bunk Beds in Haleyville Alabama, shows customer Elizabeth Falconer, of Position by Design in Aledo Texas, how easy it is to move the mattress around on one of his bedding sets during opening day of the Tupelo Furniture Market.
Gaston
OXFORD – The Shannon man accused of robbing a Verona branch bank in late December will have his day in a federal courtroom next month.
Antonia D. Cannon, 57, of Clarke Street, Shannon, has pleaded not guilty to the charge of armed bank robbery. His jury trial is set for March 6 at the federal courthouse in Oxford.
Cannon is accused of robbing the Renasant Bank branch in Verona on Dec. 30, 2022. He was captured in Tupelo about an hour later and has been in custody ever since. A federal grand jury indicted him for armed bank robbery on Jan. 18. A week later, Cannon waived his arraignment appearance and entered a plea of not guilty.
U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson is scheduled to hear the case in the large courtroom March 6 at 9:30 a.m. Any plea agreements must be submitted by Feb. 21.
If convicted, Cannon could face up to 25 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, as well as five years of supervised release, commonly called probation.
According to the criminal complaint prepared by FBI special agent Dustin Blount, Cannon entered the Renasant Bank branch on Raymond Avenue Dec. 30 at 4:41 p.m. He walked up to the teller brandishing a black firearm and demanded money.
After the teller handed him $4,700 in cash, he walked out and drove away in a red Cadillac. Verona police responded quickly and alerted area law enforcement of the suspect vehicle description and tag number. Around 5 p.m., a Natchez Trace Parkway ranger spotted the car driving north toward Tupelo.
The ranger, with the assistance of the Tupelo Police Department, stopped Cannon in a west Tupelo neighborhood and took him into custody. Officials recovered the $4,700 from inside the vehicle. A cell phone Cannon threw out was recovered.
On the way to the jail, Cannon allegedly claimed the gun used during the robbery was an airsoft gun. Police say he then claimed to have thrown it out the window when he noticed the ranger turning around to follow him.
Verona PD handled the initial investigation but turned it over to federal agents on Jan. 3.
Cannon has used a toy gun to rob a bank before. He served more than four years in a federal prison for robbing a pair of Mississippi Delta banks nearly 25 years ago.
In July 1998, Cannon walked into the Valley Bank in Clarksdale and robbed two tellers of $3,300. Less than two months later, Cannon walked into the Trustmark National Bank branch in Leland and robbed two tellers of $3,788. In both incidents, Cannon was carrying a BB gun replica that looked like a real semi-automatic pistol.
He initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea. In July 1999, he was sentenced to 70 months on each of the bank robbery charges, to be served concurrently, as well as five years supervised released. He was also ordered to pay $7,088 in restitution.
He served about 52 months in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and was released in late November 2003. The supervision ended in September 2008.
A few shoppers mingle about inside of Building V of the Tupelo Furniture Market on opening day. The market ends on Thursday.
A few shoppers mingle about inside of Building V of the Tupelo Furniture Market on opening day. The market ends on Thursday.
Reporter
Crews begin pouring concrete curbs as the City of Tupelo works to upgrade and extend Gun Club Road in Tupelo as part of a project that will connect the area to the site of the future Chickasaw Heritage Center, located off of the Natchez Trace Parkway.
A sign alerts travelers long the Natchez Trace Parkway of the entrance to the Chickasaw Village Site in Tupelo.
TUPELO — The road to Tupelo’s proposed Chickasaw Village Heritage Center may be long, but at least it will soon be literal.
The city of Tupelo has begun work on construction of an access road off of Gun Club Road in west Tupelo. Once completed, it will connect to foundation property next to the Natchez Trace Parkway, which will eventually be home to a facility that celebrates the history of the Chickasaw Nation.
Construction of the access road is part of a 2021 agreement between the city of Tupelo and the Chickasaw Inkana Foundation. As part of the agreement, the city will construct, improve and redesign portions of both Gun Club Road and West Jackson Street to allow construction workers to access the site of the proposed facility.
“It's been a lengthy process,” Chief Operating Officer Don Lewis said last week of the access road’s construction. Lewis noted that two roads had to be built by the city to give access to the foundation property without bringing heavy machinery onto the federal parkway.
As of late last week, the city had begun curb and gutter work for the new road and completed the extension of Browning Drive from West Jackson Extended to Gun Club Road.
Once complete, the heritage center will help visitors better understand the history of the Chickasaw Nation as viewed through the eyes of the Chickasaw themselves. The facility will feature an exhibit hall, theater, gift shop, cafe, a reconstructed village area and other attractions.
The center is estimated to generate $6 million annually, create at least 25 permanent jobs and draw some 100,000 visitors per year. It will be located adjacent to the Chickasaw Village Site currently near the Natchez Trace Parkway.
The Chickasaw lived across Northeast Mississippi, as well as neighboring northwest Alabama, west Tennessee and southwest Kentucky before the U.S. government forcibly removed them from their homeland in the 1830s.
Chickasaw Inkana Foundation CEO Brady Davis said the foundation recently received $16 million from the Chickasaw Nation for the project, matching the $11 million in funds provided by the state and the $5 million the foundation raised locally.
Davis said the foundation hopes to secure another $5 million from the state of Mississippi to complete funding of the project.
“This is a bipartisan effort,” Davis said. “Everyone is working to make this project a reality.”
Davis said while raising funds for the project, the foundation is also finalizing the design of the heritage center. More information, he said, will be released in the coming months.
Reporter
In this photo provided by the Mississippi House of Representatives, House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, left, swears in Perry Van Bailey, right, as the newest member of the House on Feb. 14, 2023. Van Bailey won a special election for House District 23, which consists of Grenada, Calhoun Webster and Lafayette counties.
JACKSON — Perry Van Bailey, a Calhoun County farmer, became the newest member of the Mississippi House of Representatives on Tuesday, cementing him as the shortest-tenured lawmaker out of all the legislators at the state Capitol.
“It is overwhelming,” Van Bailey told the Daily Journal. “I’ve never been involved in something so detailed like this. It’s very rewarding to have your family lift you up like mine have.”
Van Bailey can now begin serving constituents in Grenada, Calhoun, Webster and Lafayette Counties. Since he arrived in Jackson during the middle of the 2023 legislative session, he’ll be limited in what he can do. The legislative session is governed by deadlines, and the deadline for lawmakers to author general bills has already passed.
Although Van Bailey cannot write new bills, he can offer amendments to legislation, serve on committees and ask questions about legislative measures..
“Mainly, I plan to learn my way around and continue to learn about my constituents,” Van Bailey said. “And I want to figure out how the procedures work down here.”
Van Bailey eked out a razor-thin, seven-vote victory during the special election for House District 23. He replaces Jim Beckett, who resigned from the House to become the new director of the Public Utilities Staff.
Though he appeared on the special election ballot without a partisan affiliation, Van Bailey said he intends to caucus with the Republican Party. House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, is expected to formally assign Bailey to committees in the coming weeks.
The Calhoun County lawmaker is also running in the regular election for state offices. Jack Thomas Willis Jr. and Andy Stepp, along with Van Bailey, qualified to run in the Republican primary. Andy Clark is running as an independent, and Danny Lampley qualified to run in the Democratic primary.
The winner of the Republican party will appear alongside Lampley and Clark on the general ballot.
