RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – A man and a woman both pled guilty in connection to the 2022 stabbing death of a Forest man.

Rankin County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett said Jeffrey Allen Freeman and Madison Nicole Hardin pled guilty in Rankin County Circuit Court.

Freeman, 24, pled guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hardin, who was 17 at the time of the crime, pled guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Bramlett said the body of Keair Stowers, 22, was found in a shallow ditch near the Rankin-Scott County line. He had been stabbed multiple times.

Deputies from the Rankin and Scott County Sheriff’s Departments discovered that the victim’s 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche was missing. It was located in Franklin County. Franklin County deputies, along with a Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) trooper, stopped the truck, which was occupied by both Freeman and Hardin.

According to Bramlett, a rifle was found inside the truck, which Freeman later admitted he used to strike the victim.

Investigators obtained DNA evidence which linked the defendants to the crime, as well as Facebook and other electronic messages, which revealed Hardin had befriended Stowers and then lured him to a location with the intent to steal his truck.