News

Suspect in murder of ATM service tech had numerous prior arrests

January 11, 2004

JACKSON, Miss. - Marvin Harris, the Jackson man who police have charged with the Jan. 1 murder of an ATM service technician, had at least 16 prior arrests and had been out of jail almost two months before the shooting.

According to an Associated Press report, the 31-year-old Harris turned himself in on Jan. 10 after learning officers had issued an arrest warrant for him, police spokesman Robert Graham said.

Carriel Frank Hedgepeth, 50, of Clinton, was pulled from his car and shot in the head in the parking lot of a BancorpSouth branch while waiting to service an ATM, police said. (See related story Service tech ambushed at Miss. ATM)

"Detectives do not believe that Mr. Hedgepeth's employment as an ATM repairman was the reason why he was targeted," Graham said, adding that auto theft and robbery appear to be the motive.

Harris spent nine months of 2003 at the Hinds County Detention Center on an auto-theft charge before he was released on a cash bond by Circuit Court Judge Swan Yerger, jail records show.

According to jail records, simple assault, false pretense, petit larceny and domestic violence were among Harris' prior charges.

He is currently being held at the Hinds County Detention Center without bond, according to the APreport.