Background: News footage of the Smith Chapel Holiness Church in Athens, Miss. (WTVA). Inset: Jadynn Hamilton (Monroe County Sheriff's Office).
A Mississippi teenager will be tried as an adult after he allegedly confessed to beating his grandmother to death at their church.
Jadynn Hamilton, 17, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the beating death of his 73-year-old grandmother, Ollie Hamilton. According to Monroe County Coroner Alan Gurley, Ollie Hamilton was pronounced dead by paramedics when they responded to a 911 call from Smith Chapel Holiness Church on Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook told local ABC and NBC affiliate WTVA that Jadynn Hamilton eventually confessed to killing his grandmother.
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While speaking to the local press, Crook said that sheriff's deputies found clues at the church in Athens, around 175 miles northeast of Jackson near the Alabama border. Those clues that pointed in the direction of Jadynn Hamilton. After Ollie Hamilton was located in an area near the church's kitchen, deputies interviewed witnesses at the church and found that a "young man" had sought help for the older woman.
That "young man" was Jadynn Hamilton. Crook told the Monroe Journal, "The longer that investigation went, evidence started pointing in a certain direction. A young man had supposedly gone for help early on after the attack. We ended up bringing him in last night, and he confessed to the crime."
He added, "This is a tragedy of the worst kind because you've got a beloved church member, family member, and community member killed, and then you come to find out within 24 hours she was killed by another beloved family member."
Crook did not release any information about a possible motive in the alleged attack, but stated that the teenager had no criminal history. He said, "If somebody is not able to control their impulses and they reach that point, I don't think it really matters who the victim is at the time. If it got them to that level of anger, they're going to lash out at whoever. It just happened to be his grandmother."
Jadynn Hamilton was arrested and charged as an adult with first-degree murder. He is being held on $500,000 bond.
