A Mississippi teenager accused of fatally shooting an elderly couple had known the victims before the incident that later led to an armed standoff with authorities, according to new courtroom testimony.
Cordarius Hobbs, 17, faces charges in the deaths of 74-year-old Billy Blair and his wife, 71-year-old Virginia Carol Blair, who were killed during an alleged June 3 home break-in in Mendenhall, Mississippi.
During a preliminary hearing Thursday, members of Hobbs’ family testified that the teen was familiar with the couple.
Relatives told the court Hobbs had previously done odd jobs for the Blairs, including cleaning and other work around their home, before the alleged shooting, WAPT reported.
Billy Newsome, Hobbs’ grandfather, said he thinks his grandson may have been asked to work at the home on the day of the alleged killings, but he maintained that Hobbs is innocent.
“My grandson used to work for the man, why you gone rob a man that you work for,” Newsome said. “Why you gone stay there that long and you know the police out there, and then you gone wait until everybody gets there to run, it just ain’t adding up, something just ain’t right here.”
On June 3, three contractors who were installing a generator at the Blairs’ residence noticed Carol Blair’s car door was open and several firearms were lying on the seats around 10 a.m. That discovery led them to contact the Simpson County Sheriff’s Department for a welfare check at about 11:30 a.m., a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation investigator said.
The investigator testified that deputies arrived by noon and were immediately fired upon, triggering a standoff that lasted nearly two hours.
Hobbs was captured after trying to run away from officers, the official said, adding that the teen was unarmed when he was caught.
Carol Blair was found in a bedroom curled in the fetal position and had three gunshots to the back of her head. Bill Blair was found lying on his back in the kitchen with three gunshot wounds to his face.
The state investigator said three firearms were found inside the home as well as 280 shell casings, all owned by Bill Blair.
Hobbs’ defense attorney, Zachary Vaugh, argued that there’s a lack of direct forensic evidence connecting the teenager to the shooting.
“There was nothing to say he’s a principal, he’s the one that pulled the trigger on these things,” Vaugh said. “One of the things alone was, one of the victims was shot twice on one side of the head and once on the other. I think that’s pretty compelling that somebody else may have been in there. There’s a lot of things that are possible, just a tremendous amount of things.”
“When you have an officer say there’s no one that can identify him at the time of the shooting, I just don’t see how that adds up,” he said.
Hobbs is charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of burglary, in addition to 10 other charges. He was denied bond.
In a statement on Facebook, the couple’s family previously said, “We are crushed in spirit, bruised, and brokenhearted, but we are not alone.”
Jason Busby, who was friends with the couple, remembered them as being extremely selfless when speaking with WLBT.
“The man would’ve given you the shirt off his back, his wife is the same, and they’re just great people. It’s just a tragedy,” Busby said. “Everybody around here is still in shock. They were just good people.”
