A second man has been arrested in the death of a Mississippi woman found hanging from a tree last month in a case that sparked alarm due to the southern state’s history of racial violence.
Earnest Lloyd Jr. Lloyd, 25, was arrested Tuesday, Sept. 22, and charged with murder in Tasia Fortune‘s death, according to a statement from Jackson, Mississippi, police. Lloyd is the second person charged with the murder in the case, following the Sept. 11 arrest of Jarques Ratliff, 51. Both Lloyd and Ratliff are Black.
Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney in announcing Ratliff’s arrest acknowledged the attention the case has drawn because of Mississippi’s history of lynchings. But she did not say what police believe motivated the suspects.
“We understand the question and the desire for answers given Mississippi’s history,” Brackney said previously. “We do not dismiss those concerns, we are taking them seriously.”
The Mississippi Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported that Lloyd was in court on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. A Jackson Municipal Court judge ordered he be held in jail.
Jackson Police Department officials told the Clarion Ledger that “Lloyd was observed by witnesses chasing Fortune” sometime prior to her death. Details on what the chasing incident was related to were not disclosed.
It’s unclear whether Lloyd knew Fortune. Police previously said that Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune without elaborating.
Ratliff on Sept. 14 pleaded not guilty and was ordered to be held in jail after a judge determined he was a flight risk.
Attorneys for the two suspects could not be immediately reached.
Police say they are looking for a third person in connection with Fortune’s death. Jackson authorities said they are not releasing the name of the third person they are seeking.
Fortune was discovered Aug. 3 hanging from a tree behind a vacant house northwest of the city’s downtown. The county coroner ruled the 29-year-old’s death a homicide without sharing a cause of death.
Investigators during Ratliff’s court appearance said he used “a black cable cord” to hang Fortune from a tree.
Fortune’s death came less than a year after two other highly publicized hanging deaths in the state, including Delta State University student De’Martravion “Trey” Reed and Cory Zukatis.
Ratliff’s attorney, Toney Baldwin, previously said his client is “innocent” and that no evidence has been shown at this time presenting a complete picture of what occurred.
“We ask the press and the public not to prejudge until we get the entirety of the evidence,” Baldwin told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2nd arrest made in death of Mississippi woman found hanging from tree
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