Guilty Verdict
After Domestic Motel Dispute Turns Deadly
November 24th, 2025
(Jackson, MS) Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens, II, announced today that a Hinds County Jury has found 38-year-old Antonio Ames guilty of First-Degree Murder and Felon with a Firearm in the shooting death of 30-year-old Jennifer Ann Ray.
On the night of August 27, 2020, officers with the Jackson Police Department responded to the Intown Suites in North Jackson regarding a reported shooting. When officers arrived, they discovered Jennifer Ray lying face-down and unresponsive outside the door of the motel room she shared with Ames. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud noise coming from the room shortly before Ray was found. Video surveillance from the property showed Ames leaving the motel in Ray’s vehicle immediately following the shooting. Investigation revealed that Ames and Ray were staying together at the motel. Detectives also uncovered that just two days earlier, Ames had been involved in a separate shooting at the Siegel Hotel, where he was seen firing a silver handgun behind the building. Shell casings from that incident matched those found at the scene of Ray’s murder, linking Ames to both crimes.
Ames fled Mississippi after Ray’s death and remained on the run until November 18, when he was apprehended in Zachary, Louisiana. At the time of his arrest, officers received Ray’s vehicle, the silver handgun tied to both shootings, multiple shell casings, a cell phone, and a large quantity of counterfeit money.
Ames was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole or probation for both the First-Degree Murder and the Felon in Possession of a Firearm. He was sentenced as a violent habitual offender and will serve his sentence in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
“The jury needed less than 45 minutes to return a guilty verdict,” said District Attorney Jody E. Owens, II. “Violent crimes are receiving swift prosecution and decisive jury action, ensuring violent offenders are held accountable and removed from our streets.”
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JODY E. OWENS, II
