Former Hinds DA Jody Owens gets 41 months in prison after pleading guilty to corruption

A federal judge sentenced former Hinds District Attorney Jody Owens to 41 months and former Jackson City Councilmember Aaron Banks to 45 months on Thursday, nearly two years to the day after federal prosecutors brought bribery charges against the two and former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

As he handed down Owens’ sentence, U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III described his decision as “somber” but said Owens still had a bright future. 

“I actually think the future you have in front of you is better than the one that you were going down,” said the judge, who also ordered Owens to pay a $100,000 fine.

“I actually think the future you have in front of you is better than the one that you were going down,” he told Owens.

Before receiving his sentence, Owens told the judge he had tarnished his family name.

“When a case says ‘United States versus Jody Owens,’ what I want you to know is my son is Jody Owens, my father is Jody Owens, my great-grandfather is Jody Moncure,” he said. 

Owens apologized to his parents, his wife, his children, his former employees in the Hinds DA’s office and to the court. 

Banks was expected to be sentenced later Thursday afternoon, while Lumumba’s sentencing will conclude later this month.

Other Jacksonians ensnared in the case have yet to be sentenced, including former Jackson City Councilmember Angelique Lee and Owens’ cousin, Sherik “Marve” Smith.

Lumumba attended Thursday’s hearing to register objections to his presentencing report, which judges use to help determine what punishment a defendant gets.

The judge had previously set Nov. 20 for the conclusion of the former mayor’s sentencing hearing but on Thursday foreshadowed that Lumumba could spend between 37 and 46 months in prison.

Federal prosecutors indicted Owens, Lumumba and Banks on Nov. 7, 2024, after years of investigating suspected wrongdoing in Jackson. Mississippi Today previously reported that the capital city caught the attention of federal authorities during a yearslong conflict between Lumumba and the Jackson City Council over the selection of a garbage collection vendor. 

No charges ever arose from that matter. Instead, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a sting operation in 2023 and deployed two undercover FBI agents to pose as out-of-state real estate developers seeking to build a convention center hotel in downtown Jackson. 

Owens wound up going into business with them, serving as an intermediary to Lumumba, Banks and other Jackson officials, according to the federal indictment. 

The DA was a registered agent for the developers’ company in Mississippi, organized a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, fundraiser for Lumumba on their behalf, and used his campaign account to pay off Lee’s campaign debt to a local printing company, allegedly in exchange for her future vote.

Owens also hired Banks’ daughter for an internship at the DA’s office that prosecutors allege was funded by the purported developers.

Owens, whose family has helped develop parts of southern Hinds County, was elected district attorney in 2019.

Banks, who was deemed indigent by the federal judge, represented Ward 6 in south Jackson from 2017 to 2025. A political organizer, he started working for the city during Lumumba’s father’s mayoral administration in 2013.

Owens, Banks, Lumumba and their attorneys sat together on the right side of the courtroom. The gallery was sparse, and Lumumba’s supporters left shortly after the judge took the former mayor’s objections to the presentencing report.

The proceedings began with lengthy arguments over the defendants’ presentencing reports from Lumumba and Banks. Presentence reports are sealed, but arguments over the information included in the document for each defendant showed the facts of the case remain murky. 

Despite having pleaded guilty over the summer, the three former Jackson officials and a federal prosecutor appeared at times to be relitigating the exact nature of their scheme. 

As Jordan evaluated Lumumba’s objections, the judge noted the mayor had taken a $50,000 bribe from Owens in exchange for moving up the city’s bid deadline. 

“The ask was to move the date of the RFQ,” Jordan said, referring to so-called requests for quotations, which is part of the project bidding process. 

Not so, responded Dave Fulcher, the federal prosecutor leading the case. 

“That is a straw man that has been set up by Lumumba’s counsel,” he said. “The bribery scheme was not, ‘We need him to move the RFQ.’ The bribery scheme was, ‘We need him involved.’” 

UPDATE, Nov. 5, 2026: Added additional photos and information from court hearing.