DA says plea offer in the works for alleged abuser featured in Mississippi Today article

by Kate Royals, Mississippi Today
February 4, 2022

A man who repeatedly bonded out of jail and allegedly attacked his ex-girlfriend will likely be offered a plea deal this month.

“We are attempting to reach an agreement on a global plea that includes his two unindicted cases,” said District Attorney Steven Kilgore, referring to the charges that resulted from the alleged rape and attempt to run over his ex-girlfriend, Kizzetta McClendon, with a car in Forest.

READ MORE: A disjointed justice system left this Mississippi woman fighting for her life

Tony Boyd's next court date is Feb. 14. At that point he will indicate whether he will accept a plea offer or go to trial.

Kilgore also said he never filed a motion to revoke Boyd's bond because he had a “hold” placed on him in jail. He said a “hold” on an incarcerated person is an internal designation by the jail to contact the sheriff before the individual is released.

Boyd was indicted on an aggravated assault domestic violence charge after allegedly shooting McClendon in Morton in March 2020. Over the course of a year and a half after the shooting, McClendon says she has been repeatedly attacked. Boyd allegedly attempted to run McClendon over with a car. Months later, he raped her in a grocery store parking lot, according to police documents.

After all three alleged violent crimes, Boyd was granted a bond by a municipal court judge and given the ability to walk free — despite the fact the Mississippi Constitution requires judges to revoke a person's bond if he commits a felony while out on bond for a previous felony. 

Kilgore had told Mississippi Today in January he would be filing a motion to revoke Boyd's most current bond of $150,000, but when he found out there was a hold on Boyd, he did not.

“I made sure he wasn't going to be out before this term of court,” Kilgore said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.