MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man is facing first-degree murder charges in the death of Ashley Henley, a former Mississippi state lawmaker from DeSoto County.
The Circuit Court Clerk’s office in Yalobusha County confirmed Thursday that Billy Brooks had been charged in connection with Henley’s death last June.
Calhoun County authorities said Brooks was picked up Tuesday at his home on County Road 284 and handed off to Yalobusha County authorities.
Henley served one term in the Mississippi House, representing Southaven from 2016 to 2019 and was found dead outside a mobile home in Water Valley, Mississippi.
It was the same trailer where her sister-in-law Kristina Michelle Jones was found dead months earlier following a suspicious fire.
Brooks was accused of starting the fire but was never charged with Jones’s death.
Brandon Henly said his wife was doing yard work at the mobile home when she was shot in the back of the head.
Last year, he told WREG he believed his wife and sister were murdered by the same person.
He said the family had begun to re-examine his sister’s death just days before Ashley was killed.
At the time, Henley was frustrated with how the investigations were going.
“I’d like for them to do their job because this is the second person someone down there has taken from me. My son doesn’t have a mother,” he said.
Brooks was charged with first-degree arson five days after Henley was killed. He was out of jail on bond when he was arrested for Henley’s death.