Three arrests have been made by the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department in connection to the shooting of University of Mississippi graduate student Zacharias Herculese McClendon, 25, of Gulfport. McClendon was a first-year MBA student at Ole Miss.
The suspects were on and off again students at the University of Mississippi, according to Lafayette County Sheriff Department’s Investigator Alan Wilburn. Wilburn also said their motive was robbery.
Steven Matthew Wilbanks, 22 of North Carolina, Derick Boone, 23 of Laurel, Mississippi, and Joseph Lyons, 20 of Houston, Texas have been charged with Capital Murder. At this time, their bonds have not been set.
The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department found the body of McClendon just after 3 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18 after responding to a welfare concern at 20B CR 140, Lafayette County, Mississippi. Authorities found McClendon’s body with a single gunshot wound.
The three men charged lived next door to McClendon, according to Wilburn.
Further details about the investigation are not being released at this time.
