By Jeremy Pittari
POPLARVILLE — A 19 year-old man died as the result of a gunshot wound to the chest while he and two other people allegedly were involved in a residential burglary.
The Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department received the call about the incident at about 4:50 Thursday morning. The call came from Marvin Quinn, who lives on Denero Drive near Poplarville. Quinn told dispatch that three people broke into his house and he shot one of them, Chief Deputy Shane Tucker said.
Deputies and investigators would later learn that the three suspects fled the scene after one of them was shot. Minutes after receiving the call from Quinn, dispatch received another call from the Pearl River County hospital in Poplarville that a shooting victim had arrived at the facility.
Deputies responded to Quinn’s home and took him into custody for further investigation and went to the hospital to check on the shooting victim. At the hospital deputies learned that the shooting victim, identified as 19 year-old Ashton J. Rester, was dead.
Pearl River County Coroner Derek Turnage said Rester died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Tucker said the man who brought Rester to the hospital, 19 year-old Raymond Gilleo of 195 Ben Sones Rd., Poplarville, was questioned and later taken into custody. Interviews with Gilleo showed that he, Rester, and a third man, Gene McBeth, 61, of 206 Martin Luther King Blvd., Poplarville, went to Quinn’s home in an attempt to retrieve some personal possessions McBeth left at the home during a previous three-day stay.
However, McBeth had been previously instructed by Sheriff’s Department personnel not to return to Quinn’s home due to a report filed by Quinn.
Tucker said in spite of that instruction not to return to Quinn’s home, the three men allegedly broke in early that morning, making entry through the rear door. Quinn awoke to the noise of the men breaking in. When the men could not make entry to the Quinn’s bedroom Rester went to the bedroom window and made entry there.
Quinn repeatedly asked Rester to leave his home but Rester would not, so Quinn fired a single round, hitting Rester in the chest, Tucker said.
The three men then fled the scene with Gilleo taking Rester to the hospital in Poplarville.
Gilleo was taken into custody at the hospital that morning but it would not be until Thursday night at about 9:30 when Deputy Brandon Carr went by McBeth’s home address that McBeth was arrested, Tucker said. Charges were not pressed against Quinn.
“The homeowner was released because through the investigation it appeared he had no other option to protect himself,” Tucker said.
The two surviving suspects had their initial appearance Friday and bond was set at $500,000 a piece for the charge of capital murder.
Tucker said state statute states if a death occurs during the commission of a crime, then the party or parties responsible for the crime are responsible for the death, whether death was the intent or not. Tucker compared it to a drunk driver killing or hurting another person.
