Supremes uphold charges

The Mississippi Supreme Court last week affirmed the charges against one of the accomplices in the 2017 slaying of six-year-old Kingston Frazier in Gluckstadt.

The defense for Dwan Wakefield argued he faces double jeopardy for being charged with three separate accessories after the fact related to Byron McBride’s murder of six-year-old Kingston Frazier.

The state Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, March 28, he did not face double jeopardy in the case.

“We hold today that, under the unit of prosecution test, the State may charge multiple violations of Section 97-1-5 for each felony committed, and we affirm the judgments of the Court of Appeals and of the Madison County Circuit Court,” the court ruled.

Wakefield, now 24, will continue to serve his 35-year sentence for accessory after the fact to murder, accessory after the fact to kidnapping and accessory after the fact to auto theft.

McBride is serving a life sentence for the murder.

The third accomplice, D’Allen Washington, 24, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in July 2018 and was released on parole in February 2022. His supervision ends Dec. 21, 2028, followed by five years of probation, according to the Mississippi Parole Board. He was recently arrested in Fowood on drug charges by the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, a Jackson news outlet reported.

Frazier was asleep in the back seat of his mother’s car when it was stolen from the parking lot of the Jackson I-55 Kroger by McBride in May 2017.

McBride took the stolen vehicle and Frazier to Gluckstadt, to a dirt road off of Enterprise Drive, where prosecutors said at the time of the trial he called Wakefield, who was 17 at the time and told him about the boy.

Wakefield told jurors that he told McBride, then 19, to drop Frazier off at a gas station or a public park or business.

Instead, McBride shot Frazier four times, killing him, the authorities said.

Wakefield drove to Gluckstadt to pick McBride up and, knowing he had murdered the six-year-old, took McBride home without notifying police, the authorities said.

The case against the trio was overwhelming. Investigators presented cell phone records, text messages between the defendants and used data from cell phone towers to track their movement on the night of the murder.