Greenwood, MS – District Attorney W. Dewayne Richardson announced this week that on Monday, November 16, 2020, Janarius Street pled guilty in Leflore County Circuit Court for the murder of Laroy Booker.
On Christmas Day in 2019, deputies with the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department responded to a 911 call where they discovered Street on his grandmother’s front porch smoking a cigarette and his victim, Laroy Booker in a back room of the house. The deputies found Laroy Booker stabbed in the throat and also found bruising and other injuries to her neck and head.
Street never denied any involvement in Booker’s death but made a claim of self-defense although he had no defensive wounds. After a thorough investigation into the relationship between Street and Booker, there was evidence that they had been in an on again off again dating relationship that was plagued with domestic violence incidents only a few of which were reported to the police.
A little over a month before the one year anniversary of Ms. Booker’s death, her killer admitted his actions in open court as he pled guilty to Second Degree Murder. Senior Circuit Judge Ashley Hines sentenced Street to the State’s recommendation of 30 years with the Mississippi Department of Corrections with 25 of those years to be served in prison and 5 of those years to be served on post release supervision. Under Mississippi law, Street will serve every day of his sentence without any opportunity for early release or parole.
The case against Street was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Amanda Sturniolo Langford, who appreciates the hard work of the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department in responding to the crime scene and its subsequent investigation. ADA Langford stated: “I know that no amount of time in prison can bring Ms. Booker back to her family, but I hope that this is a sentence that brings a sense of justice and closure to this incredibly painful time in their lives. Domestic violence cases are some of the most important and serious cases that the District Attorney’s Office prosecutes, and we hope that more victims report these incidents to police and stick with us throughout the judicial process.”