Capital murder initial appearance

This afternoon, Thomas Stafford made his initial appearance in a Jackson county courtroom where he faces a capital murder charge.
The 40-year-old man is accused of murdering 65-year-old Jerry Kirkendall by strangulation before stuffing his body into a freezer at a rental house in Latimer. Stafford also stole Kirkendall’s car, which he sold to a cousin in Alabama before being apprehended in Portland, Oregon and then extradited back to the Gulf Coast.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell said, “I feel very strong, we’ve got a real good case, you know we’ve got some good witnesses. We recovered the car, which was stolen, and we just did our job which led to his arrest and being brought back to Jackson County so he can face justice. We’re not releasing any information about what he may or may have not said, so we’ll just have to keep following up, doing what we’re doing and when things change or something else comes out we’ll put it out.”
Stafford has been denied bond. His preliminary hearing is set to take place June 12th.