Jeff Davis Co. man loses appeal

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear an appeal from a Jefferson Davis County man sentenced to life in prison for murder for the 2007 fatal shooting of his brother-in-law.

Prosecutors say Willie Mack Pierce Jr. went to Silas Upton's home looking for his wife who had left him and moved in with her sister the week before. Prosecutors say Upton was alone in the house.

Pierce argued the jury should have had an option to find him guilty of manslaughter.

The Appeals Court last year upheld Pierce's conviction. It said the evidence showed Silas was sitting in his lounge chair at home when he was shot at close range by a shotgun. The court said there was no evidence to support a manslaughter instruction to the jury.