Mobile County Man Killed in Mississippi; Arrest Made as Family Remembers Citronelle Coach

MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. — An arrest has been made in the shooting death of a 22-year-old Mobile County man killed across the state line, and his family is speaking out about the loss. Logan Wainwright, a Mount Vernon native and Citronelle High School graduate, was shot and killed January 28, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi.

Michael Holder, 37, has been charged with premeditated murder in connection with the killing. The charge carries the possibility of life in prison in Mississippi, and prosecutors there treat premeditated cases as the most serious category of homicide short of capital murder. Wainwright’s death rippled through two small communities on either side of the Alabama-Mississippi line, both of which knew him from his years in youth sports.

What Investigators Said Happened

Deputies said Wainwright and his girlfriend had arrived at a home off Old Highway 63 near Lucedale when Holder ambushed them, firing multiple rounds from a rifle and striking Wainwright while he sat in his car, according to investigators. Lucedale is the county seat of Greene County, a rural stretch of southeast Mississippi that borders Mobile County, and Old Highway 63 runs through a mix of residences and wooded parcels outside town.

According to the sheriff’s office, a neighbor who heard the gunfire ran outside and was also shot at before returning fire, wounding Holder, who was taken for medical treatment. The exchange left the scene scattered with evidence that investigators spent hours collecting in the days after the shooting. Authorities did not describe a motive or any prior relationship between Holder and the victims, saying only that the investigation was continuing.

Bond Denied

Chief Deputy Brad Warrick said Holder was served with an arrest warrant and appeared before a judge Friday for a bond hearing, where bond was denied on the premeditated murder charge. A denial means Holder will remain in custody while the case moves through the Greene County court system, rather than being released pending trial under conditions set by the court.

Authorities said Holder remained at an undisclosed medical facility receiving treatment and will be transported to the Greene County Jail once released. Until that transfer, he remains technically in the custody arrangements established after his arrest, with the sheriff’s office coordinating his medical care and security. Once at the county jail, he will await his initial court appearances as the case proceeds toward indictment.

The family said they are relieved bond was denied but remain focused on the case ahead. For relatives who live in Mobile County, the denial offers some assurance that the man accused of killing Wainwright will not return to the community while the case is pending, but they said their attention is now on the prosecution itself.

A Family Remembers

Family members remembered Wainwright as a devoted son, brother and youth football coach in Citronelle who played soccer, baseball and football and loved the outdoors. He grew up in Mount Vernon, a small town in northern Mobile County along the Tombigbee River, and graduated from Citronelle High School, where athletics were a central part of his years there.

“He done it all — soccer, baseball, football, fishing, bowling,” said his mother, Pamela Wainwright-Yancey. “He wanted to be a family man. He wanted kids.”

His sister Kelsey recalled that one of his last acts was helping paint her baby’s nursery ahead of his niece’s arrival. The detail has stayed with the family as they grieve, a reminder of how recently he had been looking forward to the newest member of a family he had built his life around.

Coaching was where neighbors and friends most often encountered him. In Citronelle, where youth football is a fixture of the fall calendar, Wainwright worked with young players in the community’s recreation programs, spending evenings at the fields teaching fundamentals and, family members said, making sure every kid on the roster felt like part of the team. Those who knew him described a young man who had stayed close to home, stayed close to family, and poured his free time into children who were not his own.

“I don’t want this swept under the rug,” Wainwright-Yancey said. “I want justice for my child.”

The family’s words carried the frustration familiar to relatives of homicide victims in rural counties, where cases can move slowly from arrest to trial and court dates arrive months apart. They said they intend to follow the proceedings in Lucedale as the case against Holder advances.

The Communities He Called Home

Mount Vernon sits at the northern edge of Mobile County, a town of roughly 1,500 people where the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers converge, and Citronelle lies a short drive to the south along U.S. Highway 45. The two communities share schools, churches and youth sports leagues, and news of Wainwright’s death traveled quickly between them. Friends organized remembrances online in the days after the shooting, and family members said the outpouring from both towns has sustained them.

Greene County, where the killing occurred, is among the least populous counties in Mississippi, and its sheriff’s office handles investigations across a wide rural territory with a small staff. Chief Deputy Brad Warrick’s public updates on the case have been the primary source of information for both the Wainwright family and residents of the Lucedale area, where the ambush at the home off Old Highway 63 left neighbors shaken.

The shooting also underscored the close ties across the state line. Mobile County residents routinely travel into Greene County for hunting leases, rural property and family land, and law enforcement agencies on both sides assist each other when cases cross the border. Investigators from the sheriff’s office worked the case with support that included processing the scene and following Holder’s medical treatment until he could be served with the warrant.

What Comes Next in the Case

With bond denied, the case against Holder now moves through the routine machinery of a Mississippi felony prosecution. The next significant step is typically presentation to a grand jury, which determines whether the evidence supports an indictment on the premeditated murder charge. Once indicted, the case proceeds to arraignment and the pretrial process, where defense counsel will receive the state’s evidence, including the accounts of deputies who responded, the neighbor who returned fire, and the girlfriend who witnessed the ambush.

The fact that Holder was wounded during the incident has added a medical detour to the legal timeline. He will remain under guard at the medical facility until doctors release him, at which point the sheriff’s office said he will be booked into the Greene County Jail. His medical condition has not been publicly described, and authorities have not said whether he has entered an appearance of counsel.

Premeditated murder in Mississippi is punishable by life in prison, and convictions on that charge do not carry parole eligibility in the ordinary course, which is one reason bond hearings in such cases rarely end in release. The judge’s denial means the question of Holder’s detention is settled unless the defense revives it on appeal, and the family said the decision gave them confidence in how the case is being handled so far.

Domestic and Rural Homicide Investigations

Investigators have not said what led Holder to the home near Lucedale that night, and sheriff’s officials cautioned against assuming a motive before the investigation is complete. Cases in which a victim is ambushed while seated in a vehicle, with a witness nearby, typically turn on forensic evidence such as cartridge casings, rifle trajectories and phone records, all of which take time to process through the state crime laboratory.

The neighbor’s decision to return fire will itself be part of the case file. Mississippi law allows a person to use deadly force in defense of themselves or others under certain circumstances, and the account that the neighbor was fired upon before firing back will be weighed by investigators and, ultimately, prosecutors as they assemble the narrative of the night. Authorities have not said whether the neighbor faces any charges, and no indication has been given that he does.

For the Wainwright family, the legal process now unfolding in Mississippi is only part of the weight they carry. They marked what would have been milestones in his life — the niece he helped prepare a nursery for, the youth teams he coached — while waiting for the court process to begin in earnest. His mother’s message has been consistent: the family wants the case taken seriously from start to finish.

How the Community Is Responding

In Citronelle and Mount Vernon, friends of the family have continued to share memories of Wainwright’s years around local ballfields, and family members said the support has made the weeks since his death easier to bear. Youth sports organizations in the area, where volunteers like Wainwright keep programs running in small towns across north Mobile County, have been among those remembering his contribution.

Anyone with additional information about the January 28 shooting was asked to contact the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi, which continues to lead the investigation. Officials said the case remains open even with a suspect in custody, as deputies work to document the full sequence of events at the home off Old Highway 63.

Family members said they will be present in the Greene County courtroom when the case against Holder begins, and they asked anyone with knowledge of the events of that night to come forward. For now, they said, the denial of bond and the pending transfer to the county jail are the first steps of a process they intend to see through to its end.