Greenville, MS—Xan McClendon, Jr., aka Nicholas Savage, 24, of Greenville, pled guilty to Second Degree Murder, two charges of Jail Escape, and Aggravated Assault on Tuesday, District Attorney Dewayne Richardson announced today.
On or about December 21, 2020, four days before Christmas, a family member found William “Billy” Rochelle, a seventy (70) year old man, unresponsive in his home lying in dead in a pool of blood. Officers of the Greenville Police Department arrived, observed bruises on Billy’s face, and saw that Billy’s buttocks was exposed. They confiscated several bloody objects from the crime scene including a knife, wooden stick, flashlight, stuffed animal, pillowcase, and mask. Witnesses identified Xan McClendon, Jr., aka Nicholas Savage, as the last person seen visiting Billy’s home. Witnesses reported that Billy opened his home to the Defendant during his time of need but later grew afraid of the Defendant and wanted the Defendant to leave. When the neighbors noticed that Billy had not been outside in a few days, they called his family members for a welfare check, not expecting to find Billy violently murdered inside.
When officers arrested Savage, he waived his Miranda rights and confessed to killing Billy.
The State Medical Examiner ruled Billy’s death as a homicide caused by multiple blunt force injuries to his face, neck, head, trunk, buttock, and extremities. Billy suffered from multiple rib fractures and lacerations to his body. It was undetermined how long Billy had lied there before he was found.
Savage was indicted for Capital Murder. After asserting an insanity defense and challenging his mental competency to stand trial, psychiatrists attempted to evaluate Savage’s claims but Savage refused to cooperate.
During his period of pretrial detention and deliberate delay, Savage attempted to escape the Washington County Regional Correctional Facility on July 28, 2022. Not even a year later, Savage did escape the Washington County Regional Correctional Facility on March 13, 2023, but was captured and returned to the facility.
After an evaluation by a psychiatrist, Savage was deemed competent to stand trial, and it was determined that Savage was legally sane at the time of Billy’s death.
One month before the Capital Murder trial, Savage incurred a new charge of Aggravated Assault for attempting to cause bodily injury to a fellow inmate at the jail. Instead of proceeding to trial on Capital Murder, which carries a life sentence, Savage elected to plead guilty to all of his pending charges in exchange for a plea offer from the State of Mississippi.
On the charge of Second-Degree Murder, Savage received 40 years in custody of the MDOC, with 38 years to serve and 2 years of post-release supervision. On the charge of Attempted Jail Escape, Savage received an additional year to serve incarcerated in MDOC. He received another year to serve in MDOC for the Jail Escape to be served consecutively to the Second-Degree Murder and Attempted Escape.
Savage rejected the State’s offer of 5 years to serve on the Aggravated Assault charge to be served consecutively to all other sentences and entered a blind plea for the Court’s consideration. The Court sentenced Savage to 5 years as proposed but permitted them to be served concurrently with his sentence on the Second-Degree Murder.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Laura K. Cooper and Kaylon McCou. The Office of the District Attorney is deeply appreciative for the cooperation of the forthcoming witnesses and for the countless hours and work conducted by the Greenville Police Department, the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, our state crime labs, and medical examiners.