Court of Appeals upholds sentencing in child’s murder case

The prison sentence of one of the accomplices in the 2017 slaying of six-year-old Kingston Frazier in Gluckstadt was affirmed by the state Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

Dwan Wakefield was sentenced to 35 years behind bars, according to court documents.

“After our review we find no reversible error,” the court ruled. “We therefore affirm Wakefield’s convictions and sentences.” 

The court issued the ruling on March 14.

Wakefield, now 23, will continue to serve his 35-year sentence for accessory after the fact to murder, accessory after the fact to kidnapping and accessory after the fact to auto theft.

Wakefield’s attorneys argued that a total of six errors were made in the process of charging, indicting and ultimately convicting Wakefield. These include the assertion that Madison County Circuit Court “lacked jurisdiction over the case.” They also argued that the circuit court erred in admitting autopsy and crime scene photographs depicting the victim.

Wakefield was convicted along with two other accomplices, Byron McBride, 24, who is serving a life sentence for the actual murder of Frazier, and D’Allen Washington, 23, who is out on parole on charges of robbery and accessory after the fact related to the murder.

Washington was sentenced to 15 years in prison in July 2018, and was released on parole in February 2022.

“Washington, 22, is required to be on electronic monitoring for a year,” according to a statement from the Mississippi Parole Board in 2022. “His conditions also include monthly reporting, random drug testing, a midnight curfew, and non-affiliation with convicted felons. He cannot possess a gun, use alcoholic beverages, go to places with bad reputations, change his residency without notifying his supervising agent or leave the state without permission. He must pay all court costs and supervision fees. His supervision ends Dec. 21, 2028, followed by five years of probation.”

Frazier was asleep in the back seat of his mother Ebony Archie’s car when it was stolen from the parking lot of the Jackson Kroger on North Frontage Road by McBride in May 2017.

McBride took the stolen vehicle and Frazier to Gluckstadt, to a dirt road off of Enterprise Drive, where prosecutors said at the time of the trial he called Wakefield, who was 17 at the time and told him about the boy.

Wakefield told jurors that he told McBride, then 19, to drop Frazier off at a gas station or a public park or business.

Instead, McBride shot Frazier four times, killing him, the authorities said.

Wakefield drove to Gluckstadt to pick McBride up and, knowing he had murdered the six-year-old, took McBride home without notifying police, the authorities said.

The case against the trio was overwhelming. Investigators presented cell phone records, text messages between the defendants and used data from cell phone towers to track their movement on the night of the murder.