‘This Is Ridiculous’: Black Mississippi Man Gets 25 Years In Prison for Breaking Into Home and Stealing a Child’s Piggy Bank
The same Mississippi sheriff’s department that paid $2.5 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit over the brutal torture of two Black men in 2023 also oversaw a burglary case that ended last month in a 25-year state prison sentence of another Black man — this time for stealing a child’s piggy bank.
Dennis Anthony Walker, 38, of Mendenhall, was sent away on April 22 for burglarizing a Rankin County home in 2023, the same year of the rampage by the so-called “Goon Squad.” Walker, who is Black, was convicted of breaking into a house on Clara Foote Road last October and stealing a piggy bank belonging to a child at the residence, though it’s not clear if the family was home at the time.
The case was prosecuted by Madison and Rankin Counties’ District Attorney Bubba Bramlett.
Walker’s sentencing came within days of Rankin County’s decision to pay $2.5 million to settle a high-profile civil rights lawsuit involving the “Goon Squad” — a group of six white law enforcement officers, including former Rankin County deputies, who carried out the racially motivated torture of two Black men in 2023. All six officers were convicted and sentenced to prison for their crimes.
Though Walker’s case does not involve the Goon Squad directly, the timing and severity of his sentence, issued by the same sheriff’s department implicated in the civil rights scandal, has raised new concerns about racial disparities and the lingering impact of law enforcement misconduct in Rankin County.
The burglary involving Walker took place on Oct. 13, 2023. Rankin County deputies responded to a report of a house burglary on Clara Foote Road. According to authorities, the home had been ransacked and a child’s piggy bank stolen. When officers arrived, the suspect had already vanished.
Deputies canvassed the neighborhood, and several witnesses reported seeing a man fleeing the scene wearing red shoes. He was last seen running into the nearby woods. Officers searched the area and found a pair of discarded red flip-flops in the brush. Further investigation led deputies to surveillance footage and a driver’s license that pointed to Walker as a suspect, according to reports.
The search continued until deputies discovered a vehicle abandoned in the woods that was registered to Walker. He was eventually arrested in neighboring Simpson County.
Prosecuting attorney Bramlett noted that Walker had previous burglary convictions in surrounding counties, which may have factored into the long sentence handed down.
Walker was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 25 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
The sentence stands in sharp contrast to the legal resolution of the Goon Squad case, in which six white officers — Brett McAlpin, Daniel Opdyke, Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton, and Richland officer Joshua Hartfield — were convicted of federal and state crimes for their role in a January 2023 torture of Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker in Braxton.
The attack stemmed from an anonymous tip that two Black men were staying with a white woman. Rather than dismiss the racist tip, deputies used it as justification to storm the home. Inside, they handcuffed the men, doused them with milk, alcohol, and chocolate syrup, and forced them to strip naked and shower together to erase the evidence. The officers used racial slurs, tased them repeatedly, and planted drugs and a weapon. One deputy, Hunter Elward, shot Jenkins in the mouth.
“No monetary value could ever justify the amount of mental and physical abuse and trauma these men have been subjected to,” said Angela English, president of the Rankin County NAACP. “It will never truly be over for Michael, who has to undergo medical procedures for the gunshot injuries he sustained and mental health therapy.”
Jenkins survived with a broken jaw and lacerated tongue and continues to undergo treatment.
Rankin County’s $2.5 million settlement—the largest of its kind in Mississippi history—came two years after the attack. Though the original lawsuit sought $400 million in damages, attorneys settled for what they could realistically obtain: $2 million from the county’s insurance and $500,000 from the sheriff’s department’s budget.
“I feel like we got what was available, certainly more than what was initially offered,” said Trent Walker, one of the attorneys representing the victims. “What the public needs to realize is that there’s a difference between holding the individual officers accountable, and in this case, they are all in prison and do not have any funds to satisfy judgment in any amount. There’s a difference between holding them accountable and holding the county accountable.”
Community members expressed frustration that the department faced no direct disciplinary consequences beyond the payout.
“What amount is enough? In anyone’s life to pay for that,” said Rankin County resident Will Sims. “I just feel like the sheriff’s department got off easy as far as the amount is concerned.”
Despite the public outrage, English acknowledged the legal milestone. “The fact that they were able to get anything, including convictions of all white law officers in the state — and correct me if I’m wrong, historically, $2.5 million is the most paid for excessive force in Rankin County or Mississippi.”
As for Jenkins and Parker, their legal team has not yet decided whether to pursue civil judgments against the individual officers. In a joint statement, the attorneys asked the public to give the victims space to recover: “We plead for the public to have them and their families have their privacy in order to heal,” the statement said. “In the name of justice… we are hoping their cases can be resolved soon and allow Rankin County and the State of Mississippi [to] turn a new and better page in policing and racial relations.”
Sims echoed that sentiment. “I just hope the citizens will continue to come together in unison to really make this a great community that everybody can enjoy and not be harassed because of your race.”
While the Goon Squad is gone, the department that enabled them continues to cast a long shadow over Rankin County, now with a 25-year sentence handed down for a piggy bank theft that may leave residents asking difficult questions about justice, race, and accountability.
“Yeah, I know we’re living in the last days of this world, cause it says that in the Bible,” one resident said. “I’m not perfect, no man walking is, but this is ridiculous.”