A man accused of decapitating and hacking the hands off a federal witness five years ago is scheduled for trial today in U.S. District Court in Jackson.
Joe Lewis Collins, 61, of Magee is charged with murder in the 2003 slaying of Clovis Reed of Canton.
Reed’s body was found April 4, 2003, in a wooded area in Simpson County a week before she was scheduled to testify in an embezzlement case.
Prosecutors say the crime was conceived to prevent Reed from testifying that Nelson and Edmond embezzled Reed’s $50,000 settlement check from the black farmers lawsuit in 2001. Checks were distributed to black farmers nationwide as part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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