NATCHEZ — An Adams County man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Monday, but will remain free on bail until he is sentenced.

Marvin Anthony Watson, 49, 230 Country Club Drive, entered the plea in front of Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson in relation to the May 18 shooting of Peter Jones III, 32. Jones died several days after the incident.

Even though the matter did not go to trial, several people spoke, telling wildly different stories of what happened that morning.

In a voice sometimes wavering with emotion, Watson told Johnson he had stepped outside M&M Lounge on Steamplant Road to urinate when Jones attacked him from behind, pinning him and taking all his money at gunpoint.

Watson said Jones then told him to go back into the nightclub but followed him in minutes later.

“He followed me into the club again, brandished the gun and I took action to protect myself,” Watson said, telling the court he shot Jones with a 40-cailber handgun.

“I was just trying to get the gun out of his hands, I was just trying to disarm him I wasn’t trying to kill the guy. I had been in the military for six years and I had never had to deal with that.”

When Johnson asked him where the gun had been when he was attacked outside, Watson said it had been pinned under his leg.

His attorney, Tim Balock, said Watson had admitted to him and a previous attorney to the killing.

“He is an honorable person, he admits he did wrong and he wants to pay his debt to society,” Blalock said.

When giving a victim’s impact statement, however, Jones’ sister Petrina Jones questioned if the attack outside the club happened and said even if it had her brother had been sitting at the bar for two hours before the shooting occurred.

“My brother dropped down to the ground, (Watson) put the gun to his head and my brother pleaded, ‘You have shot me enough,’ and Mr. Watson proceeded to shoot the gun but it didn’t go off,” she said.

“My brother wasn’t an outstanding citizen, but I wouldn’t shoot a dog attacking me like that.”

Petrina Jones described her brother as a “kind-hearted” father of six who had gotten his life back together after a time in rehab.

“This has drove our family insane, we was a close-knit family with six children to take care of their father is gone,” she said.

“There is a God above, and if you come in here and make this up about a dead person, you are going to have to (answer to) this one day.”

Petrina Jones said she learned the version of events she relayed through talking to witnesses who had been at the scene.

Jones’ father, Peter Jones Jr., also addressed the court, questioning why Watson didn’t call the police if he had been robbed.

Watson’s aunt and mother both spoke on his behalf.

“He has not given us any problems,” said Gloria Young, his aunt. “He has been a very sweet, law-abiding young man, and the night I heard this I sunk to my knees because I know he is a kind-hearted young man. He never bothered anybody.”

Johnson said because the matter did not go to trial and because of the differing stories of what happened he would order a pre-sentencing investigation before Watson was given a final sentence.

The judge said Jones had a record that Watson’s statements against him would fit within — Jones was indicted for aggravated assault and had previously pleaded guilty to armed robbery and possession of cocaine, and was on released supervision at the time of this death — while Watson had no criminal record.

“It never fails to amaze me how people come up here and think you know what happened,” Johnson said. “I hear these bad things about Peter Jones, but he had a family and he is gone, he ain’t coming back.

“(But) sometimes we don’t know what a person does when they aren’t around us. I have no doubt and don’t dispute that Mr. Jones was the way his family said when he was around them, and I don’t dispute that Mr. Watson was the way his family said he was around them. When you take firearms and guns and go to a club at that time of night and drink alcohol and do drugs and whatever else, that is a recipe for disaster.”

Johnson said Watson could remain free on bond until he is sentenced, to which prosecutor Larry Baker objected. Johnson said he did feel Watson was a flight risk based on his past interactions with the court.

The judge did not set a sentencing date in the courtroom.

Petrina Jones became very emotional when Johnson said Watson could remain free on bail.

“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, my brother is gone and this man is free,” she said. “But God has the last say so. He has got the last say so.”

After the hearing in court, Petrina Jones said she believed the court had been wrong in asserting Watson had a clean criminal record. Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield could not be reached for comment about Watson’s possible record.

“I don’t wish this on his family or anybody’s family, what we have gone through these last eight months,” Petrina Jones said.

“I don’t want anybody to kill (Watson). I want him to rot in jail.”