Article published Nov. 16, 1999
Hattiesburg American
By Cathi Carr

Second wrongful death lawsuit settled

The second of three lawsuits against Jones County Sheriff Maurice Hooks, the Jones County Sheriff’s Department and Jones County Board of Supervisors has been settled.

Tuscaloosa, Ala., Police Capt. Cecil Lancaster will receive an undisclosed settlement following U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pickering’s closure of the case on Wednesday. Pickering ordered the three defendants to terminate the settlement within 20 days or face enforcement measures.

Lancaster was allegedly shot by convicted cop killers Mario Centobie and Jeremy Granberry. Centobie, 33, and Granberry, 20, overpowered Hooks while he was transporting them in a patrol car not equipped with a state-mandated Biddle cage, or protective screen, between the front and back seats.

The day the pair escaped, Lancaster pulled them over in Hooks’ stolen patrol car. Lancaster was shot several times as he approached the car. Lancaster sued to collect damages “for severe physical injury and emotional distress as a result of the gross, callous, reckless and deliberate indifference of his constitutional rights as displayed by the actions and omissions of the defendants,” the lawsuit stated.

Centobie and Granberry still face criminal charges for wounding Lancaster.

The only civil case remaining in the federal courts is that of Daniel Alexander, who allegedly was kidnapped by Centobie and forced to drive him to Mobile, Ala.

Lancaster’s and Alexander’s federal lawsuits were filed in Hattiesburg on June 27, the one-year anniversary of the death of Moody, Ala., police officer Keith Turner, 29, who was killed by Centobie and Granberry the day Lancaster was shot. They were convicted in May of capital murder in Turner’s death.

His widow, Brandy Turner, recently settled her lawsuit against Hooks, the sheriff’s department and the supervisors as well.

Originally, Jones County District Attorney Jeannene Pacific, Assistant DA James Stricklin, the state of Mississippi, the Mississippi Department of Corrections and Jones County Public Defender David M. Ratcliff were named in the three lawsuits but were later released from the cases because of immunity.