The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a former Jackson police detective in the 2019 death of a man who was pulled from a vehicle while officers were searching for a pastor’s killer.
In acquitting Anthony Fox of culpable negligence manslaughter, a majority of the appeals court wrote that prosecutors failed to prove Fox “acted in a grossly negligent manner” or that the death of 62-year-old George Robinson “was reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances.”
In August 2022, a Hinds County jury convicted Fox, and Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten sentenced him to five years in prison — a 20-year sentence with 15 suspended.
An indictment accused Fox of pulling Robinson from a car on Jan. 13, 2019, and striking him in the head and chest as police were searching for a juvenile who was a suspect in the killing of a pastor. Robinson died in a hospital two days later.
An autopsy report listed Robinson’s death as a homicide caused by “at least three blunt injuries” to the head, according to court records.