Bio

Marlon Latodd Howell was born on April 1, 1980. Mississippi Department of Corrections records identify him as inmate number R7984, a Black male, and list his capital-murder sentence as active under death-row custody.

Before the murder of Hugh David Pernell, Howell had a prior drug-related conviction in Union County. In 1999, he pleaded guilty after a charge involving marijuana was reduced to possession of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to three years and placed in Mississippi’s intensive supervision program, also described as house arrest. On February 11, 2000, the remaining balance of that sentence was suspended, and he was placed on supervised probation for two years.

That prior sentence later became legally important during the penalty phase of Howell’s capital-murder trial. The State used his probationary status as one of the aggravating factors, arguing that the capital offense was committed while Howell was under a sentence of imprisonment, probation, or parole. The jury also considered the aggravating factor that the killing was committed for pecuniary gain during a robbery.

Murder Story

Shortly after 5:00 a.m. on May 15, 2000, Hugh David Pernell was delivering newspapers in New Albany, Mississippi. Pernell was a retired postal worker who also worked as a newspaper carrier for the Tupelo Daily Journal. The shooting happened on Broad Street in front of the home of Charles Rice.

According to the Mississippi Supreme Court’s trial summary, Howell was in a vehicle with Curtis Lipsey and Adam Ray when Pernell was flagged down. The evidence at trial showed that Howell got out of the rear vehicle, approached the driver’s side of Pernell’s car, and shot him. Pernell’s vehicle then struck a parked vehicle in a nearby driveway, and Howell, Lipsey, and Ray fled the scene.

Charles Rice, who lived nearby, heard a vehicle horn and looked outside. He saw two vehicles stopped in the street. Rice later described seeing a man get out of the passenger side of the rear vehicle, walk to the driver’s side of the front vehicle, speak briefly with the driver, and then shoot him. Rice called 911 and described the shooter as a young Black male, about six feet tall, with a light complexion and short hair. He also described the fleeing vehicle as a dark-colored, late-model Oldsmobile.

Later that day, police received an anonymous tip suggesting that Curtis Lipsey should be questioned. Lipsey and Adam Ray voluntarily went to the police station and gave statements. Based on those statements, New Albany Police Chief David Grisham and Investigator Tim Kent began looking for Howell. Howell was arrested at about 7:30 p.m. on May 15, 2000. He denied involvement and claimed that he had been in Corinth with a woman at the time of the shooting.

The State presented evidence that Howell, Lipsey, Ray, and Brandon Shaw had been together during the night before the murder. Witnesses testified that Howell said he needed money to pay his probation officer and made comments about committing a robbery. At one point, while the group was at a gas station in Tupelo, Howell reportedly saw a man and said, “there goes an easy lick.”

Lipsey testified that Howell was the shooter. According to Lipsey, Howell reached over and blinked the vehicle’s lights to get Pernell to stop. Howell then got out, approached Pernell’s car, and struggled with him briefly before pulling a gun and firing. Lipsey also testified that Howell later said Pernell had sprayed him in the face with mace, so he shot him.

After the shooting, Howell, Lipsey, and Ray returned to Brandon Shaw’s house. Shaw testified that Ray came to his bedroom door and said Howell had shot somebody. Howell was present and did not deny the statement. Instead, he asked Shaw to take him to Blue Mountain immediately. Shaw later testified that Howell told them not to tell anyone.

Investigators later found a gun behind Shaw’s house. Forensic scientist Starks Hathcock examined the bullet recovered from Pernell’s body and compared it with bullets test-fired from the recovered handgun. The Mississippi Supreme Court record identifies the weapon as a Larcin/Lorcin .380-caliber handgun and states that the bullet recovered from Pernell was fired from that gun.

Dr. Steven Hayne performed the autopsy. He found that Pernell died from a gunshot wound that entered the chest cavity, passed through the lung and heart, and caused extensive internal bleeding. Hayne concluded that the manner of death was homicide caused by a gunshot wound.

Howell was indicted with Curtis Lipsey and Adam Ray for capital murder in the slaying and attempted robbery of Hugh David Pernell. Lipsey later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery and received consecutive sentences of 20 years and 10 years. The Mississippi Supreme Court record states that Ray and Lipsey also pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery in Pernell’s killing. 

Howell went to trial in Union County Circuit Court. He presented an alibi defense through his father and sister, who testified that he had been at home in the early morning hours of May 15, 2000. The jury rejected that defense, found him guilty of capital murder, and sentenced him to death on March 30, 2001.

On October 23, 2003, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Howell’s conviction and death sentence on direct appeal. The United States Supreme Court initially granted review but dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted in 2005 because the federal constitutional claim had not been properly raised in the Mississippi Supreme Court. 

Howell later sought post-conviction relief. In 2008, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted him an evidentiary hearing on limited issues, including claims related to eyewitness Charles Rice’s later statements, representation at a police lineup, and alleged exculpatory statements from Terkecia Pannell. After the hearing, the trial court denied a new trial, and the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed that denial on October 9, 2014. 

Mississippi Department of Corrections death-row list, Howell remains listed as a death-row inmate. MDOC’s scheduled-executions page states that there is currently no execution scheduled in Mississippi.