ABERDEEN — A 50-year-old Aberdeen man pleaded guilty this week to both cocaine trafficking and manslaughter charges, closing two separate criminal cases in Monroe and Lee counties.
Don C. Gilleylen was set for trial September 29, 2026, in the Circuit Court of Monroe County on an aggravated trafficking charge. After a jury was selected, Gilleylen changed his plea and entered a guilty plea to the charge of Trafficking Cocaine, according to a press release from First Circuit District Attorney Jason D. Herring.
Senior Circuit Court Judge Paul S. Funderburk accepted the plea and sentenced Gilleylen to 10 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with an additional 20 years suspended and five years of post-release supervision.
The trafficking charges stemmed from a checkpoint conducted by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. The North Mississippi Narcotics Unit investigated the matter.
“While checkpoints may sometimes be a brief inconvenience for law abiding citizens, they are very effective tools in keeping our roadways safe, and in this case, keeping dangerous drugs out of our community,” Herring said in the release, thanking the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the North Mississippi Narcotics Unit for their work.
Assistant District Attorneys Paul Gault and Nebra Porter prosecuted the trafficking case on behalf of the State of Mississippi.
Manslaughter plea in Lee County case
In an unrelated matter, Gilleylen also had a manslaughter charge pending in the Circuit Court of Lee County that was set for trial in November. As part of the plea agreement, Gilleylen pleaded guilty to the indicted charge of Manslaughter for the killing of Lucious A. Freeman on October 15, 2021.
Judge Funderburk sentenced Gilleylen to the maximum sentence of 20 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections on the manslaughter charge.
The manslaughter case was investigated by Investigator Jacob Whitlock of the Tupelo Police Department. Herring thanked Whitlock for the investigative work that led to justice for Freeman’s family.
Assistant District Attorneys Sadie Gardner and Paul Gault prosecuted the manslaughter case for the State of Mississippi.
All sentences were ordered to run concurrently as part of the plea agreement.
Jon R Myers is the executive editor of Alcorn County News and the founder of the Mississippi News Group, which he started in 2013 to cover communities across North Mississippi. He also founded the Mississippi Sports Group in 2006, which grew from a single community publication into a statewide network covering high school and college athletics. He reports on local government, public safety, schools and community life in Corinth and Alcorn County, working from public meetings, agency records and interviews with the people involved. Contact him at editor@alcornnewsms.com with news tips or corrections. For a correction, include the article link and supporting source material.
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