Lucedale man sentenced on two counts of manslaughter and aggravated assault

On February 7, 2024, a Jackson County jury found Derrick Wayne Chavers, 38 years old, of Lucedale, guilty of two counts of Manslaughter and a count of Aggravated Assault.

Chavers was staying at a camp in Leakesville when he showed up, uninvited, to a party and drove a side-by-side utility vehicle into a crowd of teens and young adults.

In the wake of Chavers’s recklessness, a seventeen-year-old and twenty-three-year-old were killed and a twenty-five-year-old was severely injured.

On February 21, 2024, Circuit Court Judge Kathy King Jackson sentenced Chavers to a total of 40 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Judge Jackson recognized that the victims were simply party goers, and it was Chavers who was squarely to blame.