STARKVILLE (AP) – A Mississippi school superintendent has been found guilty of misdemeanor assault charges after admitting he fired a handgun into the air during a confrontation with a neighbor last year.
Justice Court Judge C. Martin Haug found Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Superintendent Lewis Holloway found guilty Friday of two counts of simple assault. The Commercial Dispatch reports Haug heard from five witnesses and reviewed video interviews recorded by a sheriff’s deputy after the Aug. 9, 2015, incident.
Holloway was fined $500 on each count.
Attorney Roy Carpenter says he will appeal the conviction in circuit court and Holloway, who has been superintendent in Starkville since 2012, declined comment.
After the charges against Holloway were filed last year, the school board members suspended Holloway for two weeks. Friday, board President Jenny Turner declined to comment on the conviction.
Holloway filed charges against neighbor Roy Couvion after his arrest, alleging Couvion hit him and threw him to the ground in May 2015. Couvion’s case was scheduled to be heard Friday, but was delated.
Couvion testified in Holloway’s case Friday that he and his 16-year-old step-daughter were on their property, when he noticed Holloway standing by his truck with one hand behind his back, starting at them. Couvion estimated that Holloway was about 60 yards away and said neither man left their own property during the incident. The neighbor testified that Holloway was slurring his words and told Couvion, “I’ve got a 9MM (handgun) with your name on it.”
Couvion said he and Holloway began to argue before Holloway raised the gun and fired a single shot into the air.
Holloway testified Couvion yelled at him first.
“He had assaulted me before, so I felt like I needed protection,” Holloway said. “So I got my gun out of the truck.”
Holloway said his actions were justified under the Castle Doctrine, which allows people to defend themselves as necessary if they are threatened by an intruder while on their own property. He admitted to drinking alcohol that day.
On cross examination, Brown asked Holloway if he had a concealed carry permit and Holloway said he did.
“During that training, were you ever told anything about drinking alcohol while handling a firearm?” Brown asked.
“Yes,” Holloway said. “They said they don’t mix.”
After Holloway testified, Brown asked that the Deputy John Rice’s video be entered as rebuttal evidence. Haug and the lawyers watched it in Haug’s office, and then the judge returned to pronounce the guilty verdicts.
“I think it sealed the case,” Brown said of the video. “It corroborated the testimony, and it also provided some statements that had been forgotten.”
