Accused of shooting his girlfriend in the head during a drunken rage, a Mississippi man was convicted of her murder during after a three-day trial.

WXXV in Guldport reports that a jury in Harrison County took a little more than an hour to convict Jeremy Charles Childress, age 48, of Saucier, for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend Melinda Hester.

Hester was found dead, shot in the head in the utility room of the house Childress and Hester shared on Haley Road in Saucier.

The shooting occurred in August 2021.

Childress reportedly killed Hester after she kicked him out of the house.

During the trial, Childress took the stand in his own defense and claimed that the

Childress took the stand in his own defense. Childress claimed that Hester had previously threatened him with a knife and a gun. Childress stated that he and Hester became involved in an argument and the gun just went off during the argument.

When cross-examined, Childress admitted that when he followed Hester in the utility room where she was killed, Hester did not have a gun and did not attack him.

After the verdict, Childress was sentenced to life in prison.