MADISON COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – A 19-year-old pled guilty after a body was found inside a Madison County home earlier this year.

Madison and Rankin County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett, Jr., said Dawton Gage Whatley, 19, of Walls, pled guilty to second-degree murder on June 24, 2024.

On February 5, 2024, Madison County deputies were dispatched to a home on Haley Creek in Madison for a welfare check. Deputies had received information out of Washington County, Mississippi, that Whatley was in custody on unrelated charges in their jurisdiction and claimed he had shot Lemetrius Hollins a few days earlier.

Once officers arrived at the home, they found the body of Hollins inside. It appeared he had been shot days earlier. Investigators traveled to Washington County and transported Whatley back to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.

After several conversations with the suspect, Whatley was charged with murder.

According to Bramlett, it appeared the two men knew each other because Hollins had acted as a guardian and mentor to Whatley in his teen years, and Whatley had been living with Hollins prior to the murder.

The exact motive remains unclear, but Bramlett said Whatley did admit to shooting Hollins one time on February 3, 2024.

Whatley was indicted on June 7, 2024 and pled guilty June 24. His sentencing will be on July 16.