Mississippi judge sets $5M bond for third man charged in Tasia Fortune's death

A Mississippi judge on Monday set a $5 million bond for the third man charged in the death of a Black woman whose body was discovered hanging from a tree in Jackson in August.

Eric Clark, 45, turned himself in on Friday and appeared before Judge Jeffery Reynolds, who described the act as "heinous" and said it had shocked the state capital. The Hinds County Public Defender's Office, which is representing Clark, declined to comment. Clark and the two other men charged in the case are Black.

Police disclosed on Friday that Tasia Fortune, 29, was killed before her body was placed in a tree behind an abandoned house. Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters outside court that Fortune died as a result of a dispute over drugs, and that props were left at the scene "as part of the staging" of a hanging. She said more arrests were likely.

The discovery of Fortune's body on Aug. 3 stirred fear in Jackson because the scene recalled the lynchings that have marked the state's long history of racial violence. Some officials had called for a federal civil rights investigation before a Jackson police detective said the scene had been staged.

"People justifiably didn't know if we had a killer on the loose who might hang people for racial reasons," Reynolds said.

Fortune's mother, Christy Spivey, told reporters that Clark had approached her at the courthouse the previous week and hugged her after a hearing for co-defendant Jarques Ratliff. "He never said he did it, but he said he was there to turn himself in for murder," Spivey said.