“Did you unlawfully kill Victoria Viner?”
That was one of the final questions posed Friday to Justin Blakeney by Jones County Circuit Court Judge Dal Williamson.
“Yes, sir,” responded Blakeney.
Shortly thereafter the judge accepted the sentence recommendation of District Attorney Tony Buckley and sent Blakeney into the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The judge sentenced Viner’s killer to 20 years in prison with two years suspended. He will be given credit for time already served.
“This case has been going on for nine years now, and we are about a week away from beginning a second trial,” Judge Williamson said. “I’ve considered what a just resolution would be knowing what I know of the case. I’m concerned about a just resolution for Justin, and I’m concerned about a just resolution for that little girl that was almost three. I’ve seen a picture of the little girl – a beautiful little child.”
The judge was not on the bench when Blakeney was convicted of capital murder back in 2014, but he noted in court Friday that he had familiarized himself with the case in anticipation of presiding over the second trial, which was set to begin September 9 in Neshoba County. An out of county group of jurors convicted Blakeney in the first trial, but an appeal to the Supreme Court landed the case before Judge Williamson. Blakeney’s attorney, William R. LaBarre, had since filed a motion to bar a retrial, which was the motion to be considered in court Friday. However, after some negotiations outside of the courtroom, the parties reached a plea deal that reduced Blakeney’s charge from capital murder to manslaughter but also eliminated any chance of an acquittal in a second trial.
Buckley said the deal was struck in part because the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case forbade the use of direct evidence in a retrial, evidence that was significant in the first trial of Blakeney. Due to that ruling the State’s burden of proof had become more difficult, Buckley explained, as the district attorney would have to convince a jury to convict Blakeney on circumstantial evidence, not direct evidence.
Judge Williamson noted the same during his verdict announcement.
“I must consider the heightened burden of proof. The Supreme Court has ruled that the direct evidence used in the first trial was not properly secured and cannot be used in a retrial,” he said. The judge added that in his experience it becomes much more arduous for the State to get a conviction with the increased burden of proof.
The judge said he also considered the input of J. Ronald Parrish, the former assistant district attorney who was successful in gaining the conviction in the first trial. That conviction was appealed to the state Supreme Court in November 2017.
“J. Ronald Parrish was emotionally involved and zealous in his pursuit of this cause on behalf of this little girl,” mentioned the judge.
Parrish got the conviction after Blakeney was indicted for the 2010 murder of Viner. Authorities were called to Blakeney's house on Highway 84 West near the old Calhoun Elementary School on August 10, 2010, and there they found the little girl suffering. Blakeney said she had fallen in the kitchen, but expert medical witnesses testified that the child died of blunt force trauma to the head, something they believe could not have happened from a fall, considering the little girls height. Blakeney was the only other person at the residence at the time when authorities arrived on the day of her fatal injuries. He had been dating the baby’s mother, Lydia Viner, for less than a year at the time of the murder and was babysitting Lydia’s child that day.
The baby died two days later at a Jackson, Miss., hospital when she was taken off of life support.
Neither biological parent was in court for the hearing Friday.
The retrial, according to Buckley, would have cost Jones County a minimum of $20,000.
"A plea is a compromise," noted Buckley, who said he has a photo of the little girl in his office. "I've anguished over this case."