Judge sets $5m bond for third man charged over Black woman found hanged from tree in Mississippi
A Mississippi judge has set $5m bond for a third suspect in the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Jackson in August.
A judge in Mississippi set a $5m bond on Monday for Eric Clark, 45, the third man charged in connection with the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman whose body was discovered hanging from a tree in August. Clark turned himself in to police on Friday.
Authorities revealed on Friday that Fortune had been killed before her body was placed in a tree near an abandoned house in Jackson, the state capital. The body was found on 3 August.
Because Fortune was Black, the case initially caused widespread alarm, evoking the state's long history of lynchings. Some officials had called for a federal civil rights probe before a Jackson police detective said the scene appeared to have been "staged."
At Monday's hearing, judge Jeffery Reynolds said residents had reasonable fears that a killer targeting people for racial reasons might be at large, calling the crime a "heinous" act that shook the city.
Clark is represented by the Hinds county public defender's office, which declined to comment. Two other men facing charges in the case, Jarques Ratliff and Earnest Lloyd Jr, remain jailed after being denied bond. All three defendants, like Fortune, are Black.
Jackson police chief RaShall Brackney told reporters outside court on Monday that Fortune's killing stemmed from a dispute over drugs, reiterating information disclosed at Friday's hearing. She said items found at the scene had been used to stage the appearance of a lynching, and said further arrests were possible.
Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, said Clark approached and embraced her at the courthouse following a hearing for co-defendant Ratliff. According to Spivey, Clark told her he had come to turn himself in for murder, though he stopped short of admitting he was responsible for her daughter's death.
