A 27-year-old man accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son inside their home this week appeared in Lowndes County Justice Court on Wednesday.
Officers led a shackled Patrick Chambers, wearing a county-issued red jumpsuit, to the justice court complex a day after his arrest in the death of Brayden Barksdale.
Chambers has been charged with murder. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Justice Court Judge Ron Cooke gave him a $1 million bond.
The brief arraignment and bond hearing Wednesday concluded at about the same time funeral services for Barksdale began at Lowndes Funeral Home. Barksdale was later laid to rest in Murrah’s Chapel Cemetery.
Chambers is accused of shooting Barksdale with a .45-70-caliber hunting rifle Monday morning at 1784 Sobley Road, according to Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy Marc Miley. Authorities said Chambers lived at the residence with Barksdale’s mother, Amy Richardson.
Miley said Chambers, a convicted felon, served time in prison for burglary in North Dakota. Chambers is also charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon and received a $10,000 bond on that charge.
Deputies responded to the scene just after 8 a.m. Monday and found Barksdale dead. Richardson was at work at the time and had left her son alone with Chambers, according to investigators. The shooting reportedly occurred inside the house. Neither Miley nor Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant would comment on where Barksdale was wounded.
Merchant ruled the shooting a homicide following an autopsy Tuesday in Jackson.
Wednesday’s events continued a tragic saga that has left a community in disbelief, starting with the officers and onlookers who congregated at the crime scene shortly after the incident. As a pair of deputies blocked the narrow entrance to the secluded, rural mobile home Monday morning, about a dozen people, mostly family members, gathered just beyond the barricade. Some stood stoic along the gravel road. Others milled about anxiously and wept.
While authorities gathered information, a weeping Richardson trekked the roughly 300-yard driveway out to the road and embraced family and friends. Moments later, she approached and hugged a man, and said, “Please don’t be mad at him.”
“He didn’t mean to,” she said.
The Dispatch was unable to identify who Richardson was talking to.
Chambers’ case now goes to Lowndes County Circuit Court, where a grand jury is expected to decide whether to indict Chambers prior to the court term that begins May 11.
Chambers remains at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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