A 17-year-old Mississippi resident, Jadynn Hamilton, is set to be tried as an adult following his alleged admission to the fatal assault of his 73-year-old grandmother, Ollie Hamilton. The tragic incident took place at their local church, Smith Chapel Holiness Church, where the elderly woman was discovered deceased. Monroe County Coroner Alan Gurley confirmed the death, which was declared by paramedics who responded to a 911 call on a recent Wednesday evening.
Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook disclosed to local media that Jadynn Hamilton had admitted to the crime. The Sheriff’s office had been conducting an investigation into the incident, collecting evidence from the church situated in Athens, about 175 miles northeast of Jackson near the Alabama border. The evidence gathered implicated the teenager in the crime.
Ollie Hamilton’s body was found in a location near the church’s kitchen. Churchgoers reported that a “young man” had sought assistance for the elderly woman. This “young man” was later identified as Jadynn Hamilton. Sheriff Crook told the Monroe Journal, “As the investigation progressed, evidence began to point in a certain direction. A young man had supposedly sought help shortly after the attack. We brought him in last night, and he confessed to the crime.”
Sheriff Crook characterized the incident as a “tragedy of the worst kind,” emphasizing the shock of a cherished church, family, and community member being killed, only to find out within 24 hours that another beloved family member was the alleged culprit.
While the Sheriff did not reveal any potential motive behind the alleged assault, he did mention that the teenager had no previous criminal record. He suggested that the incident could be a result of uncontrolled impulses, stating, “If someone is unable to control their impulses and they reach that point, I don’t think it really matters who the victim is at the time. If it got them to that level of anger, they’re going to lash out at whoever. It just happened to be his grandmother.”
Jadynn Hamilton was subsequently arrested and charged as an adult with first-degree murder. He is currently being held on a $500,000 bond.