Two and half years after two Brookhaven police officers were gunned down, the man accused of killing the officer has moved one step closer to trial.

On Thursday, the venue has been for the capital murder trial of Marquis A. Flowers was set for a Pike County courtroom 30 miles south of where Brookhaven police officers James White and Zach Moak were killed in 2018.

With no objection from the defense attorneys, Special Judge Richard W. “Dickey” McKenzie set the venue for the Pike County Circuit Court courtroom in Magnolia, upon the recommendation of District Attorney Dee Bates.

Jury selection for the trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 8. A jury will be selected from Lafayette County.

The Thursday morning motion hearing was conducted in the boardroom of the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors rather than the Lincoln County Circuit Court courtroom, due to a power outage. Electrical crews were replacing a power pole and equipment damaged during a Wednesday afternoon motor vehicle accident in front of the Lincoln County/Brookhaven Governmental Complex.

With no other motions from either the prosecution team of Bates and Assistant D.A. Brendon Adams or the defense team of Kelsey Rushing and an assistant, McKenzie dismissed court with the acknowledgment of further discovery and motion hearings to be held as necessary.

The change of venue was granted in December 2020.

Flowers was charged in December 2018 with two counts of capital murder in the shooting deaths of Cpl. Moak and patrolman White at a residence on North Sixth Street in Brookhaven, during the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 2018.

DA Bates has previously said he will pursue the death penalty once the case goes to trial.