A 31-year-old woman in Mississippi will spend decades behind bars for killing her boyfriend, fatally shooting him when he came back to their home with McDonald’s for her and her children following an argument in which she warned he would be “dead” if he returned.
Circuit Court Judge Gray Tollison on Tuesday ordered Alexandria M. Griste to serve a sentence of 20 years in a state correctional facility for the slaying of Corey Lyles two years ago, The Oxford Eagle reported. Tollison handed down the sentence after a three-day trial, after which jurors deliberated for only three hours before convicting Griste on one count of imperfect self-defense manslaughter.
Imperfect self-defense refers to situations where the defendant’s actions in killing the victim are not justifiable, but also don’t show the requisite malice for a murder conviction.
According to a news release from the Oxford, Mississippi, Police Department, officers at about 12:15 a.m. on June 8, 2022, responded to a home in the 2900 block of South Lamar Boulevard in regard to a reported shooting. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they located an adult male — later identified as Lyles — suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.
He was pronounced dead on the scene and Griste, who placed the 911 call, was taken into custody and initially charged with first-degree murder.
Per the Eagle, trial testimony showed that on the evening of June 7, 2022, Griste became angry with Lyles because he left the house without telling her. Text messages showed the couple discussing Lyles picking up McDonald’s before they began arguing. At one point, Griste sent Lyles a text stating that if he came back to the house, he would be “dead.”
Lyles and Griste had been in a tumultuous relationship for about a year, and witnesses reported seeing them arguing the previous day at a softball game, Jackson CBS and CW affiliate WJTV reported.
Griste reportedly told police that when Lyles arrived back at the home, she went to her room and grabbed a 9 mm handgun. She claimed Lyles then began coming toward her in an aggressive manner, leading her to fire three warning shots. When Lyles continued coming toward the house, Griste said she fired a shot through the window of the front door that struck him in the chest.
Throughout the trial, Griste’s attorney maintained that his client was acting in self-defense when she shot Lyles, adding that she never meant to kill him.
“What kind of world is it if a woman can’t protect herself and her children?” Griste’s defense attorney, Steve Farese, said during his closing argument, according to the Eagle.
But prosecutors argued that there was no evidence introduced showing the Lyles ever presented a danger to Griste. In fact, District Attorney Ben Creekmore told jurors that Griste was the one who antagonized Lyles and intentionally “stirred things up” before the shooting.
“It went from a heart in a text message to a bullet in his heart,” he reportedly said.
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