Woman heads to prison for three decades for her part in Mississippi murder

Published 12:22 pm Tuesday, February 26, 2019

A Jackson County woman has been sentenced to 35 years in state prison for her part in the killing a man on the Gulf Coast by her then-boyfriend.

Rita Johnston was sentenced Monday by Judge Dale Harkey, WLOX TV reported. She was charged with accessory after the fact to capital murder and attempted burglary.

Donta Banks was found dead, shot in the head and left at the end of a dirt road in Jackson County in March 2016.

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Johnston and her then-boyfriend Hubert Anderson led police on a high-speed chase through a neighborhood before their vehicle crashed

Anderson was convicted of capital murder earlier this month and sentence to life in prison. During that trial prosecutors alleged the pair killed Banks for money and his car.