Five cities. Two counties. This first week of 2026 The Pine Belt News looks back at some of the top events from 2025, including this story originally published June 26, 2025
The trial of Orlando May, who shot and killed USM football player, MJ Daniels, came to a close on Thursday. May was found guilty of capital murder, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and taking away of a motor vehicle. Under state law, the capital murder charge carries the mandatory sentence of life without parole, and Judge Helfrich sentenced May to 20 years for conspiracy and 10 years for the taking of a motor vehicle. The sentences will run concurrently, meaning they will be served at the same time.
“He won’t get to walk free anymore, but it still doesn’t compare to MJ not being able to be here,” said Adrian Jackson, Daniels’ mother. “It brings a little peace knowing that he won’t ever be able to walk the streets and hurt anybody else. Not only did he hurt us, he hurt his family, also.”
“We took this case really personally from the very beginning,” said District Attorney, Lin Carter. He went on to thank Hattiesburg Police Department for an outstanding job on the investigation and the assistant district attorneys for a job well-done on building the case. Carter added, “I’m really tired of seeing teenage defendants. It’s a real problem in the city right now.” He adamantly encouraged the community to step-up to help by getting involved with teenagers and stopping them from getting into trouble.
The trial began on Tuesday with assistant district attorneys Bryan Buckley and Cory Cranford prosecuting the case and John Helmert, public defender, representing the defense. During opening statements, Helmert suggested that Daniels was already deceased before May shot into the vehicle and pointed out the fact that there was a pistol inside the locked car with Daniels.
The first three witnesses to testify were the first police officer to arrive on the scene, the first detective to arrive on the scene, and the crime scene investigator. These witnesses established that Daniels was deceased upon their arrival at 9:30 p.m., that Daniels’ car was locked with the engine running and that the suspects were four young, black males wearing hoodies in a stolen, white Acura Integra.
CSI testified that they were able to recover latent prints [finger and palm prints] from the vehicle, collected a 9-millimeter bullet casing from behind the passenger side of the car, obtained one round from a superficial wound which was provided by the coroner and established that the handgun inside the vehicle was a 45-caliber handgun, holstered and wedged between the seat and console. It was determined through the course of the investigation that the latent prints matched codefendants, Samir Green and Alan Gardner.
The next witness to take the stand was Dr. Stacey Turner with the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s office, who performed the autopsy and was deemed to be an expert forensic pathologist. Dr. Turner established that while there were two gunshot wounds found on Daniels’ head, only one was fatal and the other was superficial. She also established the lack of stippling, burns and scrapes that result from a firearm being discharged within one to three feet from the skin. The cause of death was, “multiple gunshot wounds,” and the cause of death was deemed to be homicide. Through the questioning of the prosecution, she was able to confirm that Daniels was alive before being shot.
The next two witnesses to take the stand were the police officers involved in the arrest of May and Green on June 13, 2024- less than 48 hours after the shooting. Through the prosecution’s questioning and the witnesses’ testimonies, it was established that the stolen Acura had been abandoned. Within a mile from where the Acura was abandoned, another vehicle was reported stolen- a Ford Freestyle.
When the officer spotted a Ford Freestyle matching the description of the stolen vehicle, they initiated a traffic stop. The driver, later identified as May, lead the officer in a chase before he and the passenger, later identified as Green, exited the vehicle and fled on foot. The second officer was able to locate May and Green in the nearby tree line and made the arrests.
Wednesday morning, proceedings began with the first lead investigator of the case, who recused himself as lead when it was confirmed that one of the suspects was a cousin on June 13, 2024. In his time as lead, he interviewed both May and Green after their arrests. During his interview with May, May confessed to stealing the Freestyle, stealing the Acura, going to the Ivy Row Apartments [the site of the shooting] with three other individuals, that they saw and made a plan to steal Daniels’ car and accused Gardner of being the shooter. After Gardner’s arrest, May told the investigator that he did shoot into the vehicle. It was immediately after this interview that the investigator recused himself at the discovery of the relation to a suspect.
The prosecution then called Lauren Harvey with the Mississippi Forensic Lab as a witness. She was qualified as an expert in the field of trace evidence and gunshot residue. She testified that she completed the gunshot residue kits taken from the hands of Daniels. It was concluded that there was no gunshot residue in the samples obtained from Daniels, only particles consistent with being in an environment in which a firearm was discharged. Harvey confirmed that her findings were consistent with what she’d expect to find on a victim of a shooting. The results were consistent with the gun being fired outside of the vehicle.
The next witness, Toriann Rebick with the Mississippi Crime Lab, is a certified expert in forensic firearm scientist. Through testing with the firearms obtained from the arrests, she was able to confirm that the bullet recovered from the crime scene was fired from the 9-millimeter Glock belonging to Gardner.
Wednesday afternoon, Green took the witness stand and testified against May. He confirmed that he and May stole both vehicles, that there was a plan to steal Daniels’ car, that Daniels was sleeping in the car and woke up when the suspects began to beat on the door and that May shot into the vehicle.
The next witness to testify was Nytavion Shaw, the fourth suspect from the incident. He also confirmed that the group had formulated a plan to steal Daniels’ car and that May shot into the vehicle with Shaw’s gun, a 9-millimeter Glock.
The final witness to testify was the lead investigator that took over the investigation on June 13, 2024. Their testimony was consistent with the evidence and testimonies that had been provided throughout the trial. The state rested.
Thursday morning, Helmert stated that he would not be calling the five witnesses as he’d stated he would the day before, May exercised his fifth amendment right not to testify, the defense offered no witnesses and rested.
During the closing arguments, Buckley used the evidence provided throughout the trial to show the jury how each criterion had been met for each charge. Helmert attempted to illustrate the possibility of alternate theories, but Cranford rebutted each point by reminding the jury of how the evidence disproved every alternate series of events offered by Helmert, point by point.
After reviewing and providing the jury instructions, the jury began deliberation at 11:55 a.m. At 1:55 p.m., the jury notified the court that they had reached their verdict- guilty of all charges.
After the trial, Jackson told reporters that Daniels’ son is now five months old, doing well and is very similar to his dad at that age. “Isaiah’s doing great,” said Jackson. “He’s a ball of energy, just like his dad. When you look at him, you still see MJ. We thank God that he’s here. We hate the way that it happened, but we thank God that [MJ] was able to leave a piece of him here.”
