Jackson Jambalaya

Vincent Fernando's woes began on January 24, 2022 when D'Montario Gibson was delivering packages as a Fedex driver.  Although he was wearing a Fedex uniform, Gibson drove a Hertz rental truck instead of a marked Fedex vehicle that day.  

Gibson delivered a package to the mailbox of Brandon Case.  Things quickly went haywire for Gibson as Brandon and his father Gregory allegedly tried to run the Fedex driver off the road before shooting at him with a handgun and chasing him to I-55.  Case called the police and said there was a suspicious vehicle in his neighborhood.  Gibson called Brookhaven Police a few minutes later and reported the shooting.   The driver's supervisor was on the phone with him during the entire incident and corroborated his version of events.  The truck had several bullet holes.  

Gibson is black.  The Cases are white.  The shooting grabbed national headlines.  

The case was assigned to Brookhaven Police Detective Vincent Fernando.  Fernando has had a distinguished career in law enforcement for several decades since he immigrated from Sri Lanka 44. years ago.  He became a certified law enforcement officer through MLEOTA and a state-certified investigator.  He is a firearms instructor.  Fernando eventually became an instructor at MLEOTA (Mississippi Law Enforcement Officer Training Academy).  He joined the BPD in 2019.

Retired BPD Detective Vincent Fernando

Fernando interviewed Gipson on camera and completed his investigation. MBI processed the vehicle. No weapon was ever found.  

Brookhaven Police charged the father and son with attempted murder, conspiracy, and shooting into an occupied vehicle. The Lincoln County grand jury indicted the Cases for the same charges in November 2022. 

The case went to trial in 2023.  Circuit Judge David Strong declared a mistrial after he found the prosecution did not give a videotaped statement of Gibson to the defense.  Judge Strong dismissed the case with prejudice on January 6, 2025.    The Court held: 

In the subject motion, the defendants allege that due to numerous intentional discovery  violations  made by the investigator,  Detective Vincent Fernando, and thereby the State, in this case, the defendants have been deprived of a speedy trial, intentionally denied evidence, exposed to double jeopardy, and denied due process, in general. As such, they move that the Court dismiss the indictment as filed against both defendants with prejudice.

The District Attorney never sought a second trial.  

The Brookhaven Board of Aldermen terminated Fernando the next day.  However, Fernando was able to win reinstatement a few weeks later and was awarded backpay.  He subsequently retired.  

The retired detective strongly disputed what was said in court.  During trial, a defense attorney asked Fernando if he videotaped an interview of Gibson. He objected, claiming the video was not in the file provided.  Objection sustained. 

Fernando said "I gave everything to the D.A.'s office, a complete file."   Fernando's attorney, Jeffrey Reynolds, said the file was "inculpatory, not exculpatory."  Thus it would have been harmful to the defendant instead of helping his defense.  Fernando backed up his claim with a written statement: 

However, Det. Fernando would later become a scapegoat after defense counsel alleged that Det. Fernando withheld certain evidence from the defendants. Although Det. Fernando, in fact, turned his complete file over to the D.A.’s Office (and consistently testified to this fact), defense counsel, and even the D.A.’s Office, cherry-picked his testimony to incorrectly conclude Det. Fernando had intentionally withheld evidence; evidence which no one—not even defense counsel—claimed was exculpatory or probative of the Cases’ innocence.

The defense objected and Judge Strong declared a mistrial.  

It is standard practice for the police to include a checklist of all evidence in the file sent to the District Attorney.   Fernando said the checklist included the video. Mr. Reynolds said the prosecution gave the defense the file instead of a copy.  He said doing so was "very unusual".  (15:30). The defense lawyer returned the file to the prosecution.  Fernando said the D.A. took possession of Fernando's file before trial.  The retired detective emphatically stated he included the video in the file submitted to the prosecution.   He reiterated this in his written statement provided to the Board of Ealdormen: 

All evidence collected during Det. Fernando’s investigation was included in the file, which contained over two hundred pages of documents, 16 compact discs, and several flash drives. In particular, the video/audio recording of Det. Fernando’s meeting with Mr. Gibson at the BPD on January 26, 2022, was included on a compact disc labeled “Disc 10 Gibson Interview 01/25/2022.”

Each of the sixteen (16) compact discs included in Det. Fernando’s file was numbered, like the video from Det. Fernando’s interview with Mr. Gibson. Thus, had Det. Fernando failed to provide a disc to the D.A.’s Office (which he did not), the D.A. attorney(s) should have quickly discovered an incomplete sequence of discs. Det. Fernando’s file also included an index of its contents and a summary of his investigation.

Reynolds said the defense attorney was just doing his job but said the "crazy thing" was the District Attorney was right there with him (defense lawyer) pointing the finger at him (Fernando).  (21:00)

The retired detective conclude "justice is not being served. Two people are walking away.  I did my investigation." His attorney said a jury should have decided the case and "that is the real injustice."