According to the Mississippi Department of Corrections three Parchman inmates have died in less than one week.
Marel Gartney, Billy Bonner and Randy Bevill all dying between Wednesday and Friday of last week. MDOC has not released the causes of death and will not do so until autopsies are performed.
Inmate Marel Garney, 20, was pronounced dead at 9:33 a.m., Wednesday. He was serving 10 years for shooting into a dwelling and shooting at a car back in 2013.
Billy T. Bonner, a former Justice Court judge and police officer died inside the prison hospital at 11:40 a.m., Thursday. The 78-year-old was sentenced in March 2013 after being found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl. She had been cleaning his house when the assault took place. Bonner was in the middle of serving a five year sentence.
On Friday, at 2:10 p.m. Randy Bevill was pronounced dead at the Bolivar County Medical Center. He had been transferred there from the Parchman hospital for treatment. The 58-year-old was serving a life sentence for the 1986 murder of Amy Clayton, in Tupelo. Bevill was first sentenced to death for the murder of the 18-year-old but his conviction of capital murder was reversed on appeal. He was convicted a second time of homicide/murder and was sentenced to life in prison on April 16, 1992.
