Pardoned Mississippi Convict Found in Laramie

On Sunday, a convicted killer who had missed a court hearing after being pardoned in Mississippi was found in Laramie.

Joseph Ozment was at a Laramie hotel when investigators found him to serve him a court summons. Authorities say Ozment then tried to flee from the investigators in his car. Ozment then bumped one of the investigators with his Mercedes before returning to the hotel on foot, where he was served with the summons, requiring him to show up for court hearings and check in every 24 hours with the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is challenging the legality of dozens of pardons by former Mississippi Governor Haley. A judge had ordered Ozment and four other pardoned inmates who had worked as trusties at the Governor’s Mansion, including three other convicted killers, to check in.  Ozment was the only one to miss a court hearing last week, but the judge said she could not issue an arrest warrant because he hadn’t been served a summons.

Barbour meanwhile is defending the actions made on his final day as Mississippi Governor, saying Ozment, and the others pardoned have been rehabilitated.

He has no obligation to do anything. He’s been pardoned. He’s a free man.”

Hood is challenging the legality of dozens of Barbour’s pardons and has said that about 170 people who got them did not meet the Mississippi Constitution’s requirement that a notice be published in a local newspaper for 30 days. Ten of the pardons went to people who were incarcerated.

Most of the people pardoned by Barbour pardoned had already served their sentences and been out of prison for years. Some were convicted of drug charges or other comparatively minor crimes as far back as the 1960s and 1970s.

Ozment was sentenced to life in prison in 1994 for the slaying of Robert Montgomery during a store robbery.