Stone County man’s first-degree murder charge upheld by state supreme court

STONE COUNTY, Miss. (WXXV)- A Stone County man convicted of killing his mother will remain behind bars after the state’s highest court upheld his conviction.

In a ruling released Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the first-degree murder conviction of Terelle Johnson.

Investigators say Johnson killed and decapitated his mother in 2018 at their home.

At trial, his defense argued he was legally insane at the time, pointing to a history of mental illness and delusions, but prosecutors presented evidence Johnson knew what he was doing.

The Supreme Court ruled the jury had enough evidence to reject the insanity defense and found no major legal errors during the trial, leading to them upholding his life sentence.