Capital murder suspect pleads to lesser charge of manslaughter
TUPELO – A man held without bond for nearly two years in the Lee County Jail and facing the death penalty for a fatal 2021 shooting has been allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Peyton Allen Bogan, 23, of Tupelo, changed his plea on Tuesday and was promptly sentenced to serve 20 years in prison by circuit Judge John White.
In summer 2022, Bogan was the sixth person to be arrested and charged with capital murder in the Dec. 22, 2021, death of Justin Mayfield, 39, who was shot and killed inside his County Road 746, Plantersville, home during an armed robbery. Bogan is now the fourth suspect to have the capital murder charge either dropped completely or who has been allowed to plead to a lesser charge within the last five months.
According to the sentencing order, Bogan must pay $1,686.50 in fines, fees and court costs. He sentenced to serve 20 years in prison, with credit for the time already served. That sentence will run consecutive to separate armed robbery sentence out of Pontotoc County.
Authorities have said Mayfield’s death resulted from an armed robbery of a suspected drug house. There were still large amounts of cash and narcotics left at the scene when Lee County deputy sheriffs arrived at the residence south of Plantersville. Mayfield was found lying in a bathtub with multiple gunshot wounds.
About six weeks after the crime, authorities made the first three arrests — Christopher Clayton of Fulton, Shanery D. Hampton of Macon, and Gavin Jeffers of West Point. In March 2022, Anthony Dixon of Guntown and Dartonio Pinson of Shannon were also charged with capital murder.
When U.S. Marshals arrested Bogan at a boarding house in Dallas, Texas in June 2022, he was free on a $500,000 bond for a December 2019 armed robbery of a Pontotoc convenience store. Three masked men entered the East Side Quick Stop. Owner Omar Fadhel was shot in the leg and head but survived and managed to call 911. Bogan, who listed a Haven Acres Tupelo address at the time, was charged with armed robbery and attempted murder.
District Attorney John Weddle said in late 2022 he planned to seek the death penalty against all six defendants.
But in November 2022, the state dismissed the capital murder charge against Pinson without comment. Two days later, Jeffers was allowed to plead to the lesser charge of burglary of a dwelling and received a suspended 25-year sentence.
In early January, Weddle’s office dropped their opposition of bond for Hampton, and she was later released on a $1,000 professional bond. In February, the capital murder charges were dismissed with a stipulation that she pay court costs.
Trial dates have not been set for Clayton or Dixon, and both are still charged with capital murder. Clayton remains incarcerated in the Lee County Jail, held without bond. Dixon is in the South Mississippi Correctional Facility in Leakesville serving a previous 8-year sentence for grand larceny in Lee County.
