NATCHEZ — A Natchez man who entered a guilty plea in court this month will go to trial because the judge won’t accept his plea.

Marvin Anthony Watson, 49, pleaded guilty March 9 to second-degree murder in relation to the May 18, 2014 shooting of Peter Jones III, 32,  who died several days following the incident.

Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson, howeer, issued an order last week saying, “Upon the court’s own initiative and after reflection of the transcripts…the court finds that the defendant sets out a basis for self-defense against the charge of murder.”

The order goes on to withdraw the court’s acceptance of Watson’s guilty plea and set the trial for Aug. 20.

“Basically, the judge rejected that guilty plea,” Watson’s attorney Tim Blalock said Monday.

At the March 9 hearing in which Watson entered his plea, Blalock told the court Watson had admitted to the killing and wanted to pay his debt to society as an honorable person.

But in the order, Johnson quoted from Watson’s testimony at the hearing, which included assertions that Jones had robbed him outside the M&M Lounge earlier in the evening before brandishing a gun at him a second time inside the nightclub.

“The next thing I know, he (came) back into the club behind me, and he brandished the gun again, and I just took the action just to protect myself,” the order quoted Watson as saying.

Members of Jones’ family disputed Watson’s story at the March hearing, saying Jones was sitting at a bar and Watson attacked him after several hours. The Jones family members said they were not present at the scene, but had gotten the details of the story from witnesses.

Watson is free on a $75,000 bond.