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NATCHEZ — Sixth Circuit District Attorney Tim Cotton said Friday the retrial of Jordan Caston for the 2022 murder of 16-year-old Marquez Brown is set for Feb. 20.

After deliberating for four hours on Oct. 17, an Adams County jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Caston was 18 on Feb. 17, 2022, when he was arrested for Brown’s murder. Then Natchez Police Chief Joseph Daughtry said Brown was gunned down in February 2022 in “cold blood” in a “senseless” act of violence at 103 Jackson St. near Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

Within an hour of the shooting, police officers assisted by Adams County Sheriff’s Office deputies surrounded a house directly across the street from the crime scene, where they took Caston into custody for questioning.

Cotton said hung juries are not uncommon in cases almost three years old.

On April 6, 2022, while being held on charges for Brown’s murder, Caston set a fire in the Adams County Jail.

Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said his deputies’ investigation showed that Caston tore wires from a kiosk where he was held and used them to create sparks that ignited toilet paper.  Caston allegedly used the burning toilet paper to set clothing and blankets on fire, which filled the third floor of the jail with smoke.

Patten said the area Caston chose to set the fire is not visible from a camera because of the blind spots created in the jail’s design. The jail lacks an automatic sprinkler system, which could have extinguished the fire.

Cotton tried Caston separately on the arson charge. He has been serving a 10-year sentence in the Mississippi Department of Corrections custody.