Greenwood, MS- On January 29, 2019, Leflore Count Judge Margaret Carey-McCray accepted Dantrell Berry’s plea of guilty to the lesser included charge of Second Degree Murder. Berry was originally indicted on April 12, 2016, for the charge of Capital Murder.
Officers with the Greenwood Police Department responded to a call that a body had been found with a gunshot wound on Ash Street in Greenwood. After identifying the body as that of Marquette Woods, detectives began their investigation into who was responsible for his death. Berry was later arrested and during that arrest Greenwood Police officers found a gun in his pocket that was subsequently sent to the Mississippi State Crime Lab to be tested against the bullets found in the victim’s body. The Crime Lab report positively identified the bullets found in the victim’s body as having been fired from the gun found in Berry’s pocket.
While Berry had been indicted for the offense of Capital Murder, the State of Mississippi allowed him to enter a plea to the lessor included offense of Second Degree Murder. Dantrell Berry did not agree to receive any agreed sentence as offered by the State. He instead pled open before Judge McCray, asking her to impose whatever sentence she deemed appropriate. In Mississippi, second degree murder carries a minimum penalty of twenty (20) years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections and a maximum penalty of forty (40) years.
After reviewing the case file and the minimum and maximum penalties for each charge, Judge McCray sentenced Berry to a term of twenty-five (25) years to be served as twenty (20) in the Mississippi Department of Corrections and five (5) years of post-release supervision.
Contact: W. Dewayne Richardson District Attorney, Fourth Circuit Court District | 662-378-2105