James Eric Crisp (center) escorted by law enforcement.
A pastor allegedly confessed to killing a man. James Eric Crisp, 37, faces a count of manslaughter, said the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi.
Roger Loyd Taylor, 48, of Sulligent, Alabama, has been missing since March 10, 2019. Ever since his vehicle was found two days later, there were no leads until Crisp allegedly walked into the office of Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook and told the truth.
“James Eric Crisp walked into my office of his own free will and confessed to having killed Mr. Taylor,” Crook told WCBI in a Thursday report.
The sheriff, the outlet, and Taylor go back a little while. It was in August 2021 that Crisp told WCBI that he faced 30 years in prison in a drug trafficking case. Crook told him, however, that he was going to a rehabilitation program as part of his bond, he said. Crisp described a lifetime constantly exposed to illicit drugs. He said he first sold marijuana At age 8, first used meth at 12 and cocaine at 14. He first used meth with his father at age 13, he claimed.
“The earliest memory I have was my parents were crackheads, and they sold the front door off of our house for crack,” he said.
Crisp told the outlet that it was in May 2019 that his children saw him escorted in chains.
But Crisp said last year that he worked on turning this situation around. Crook reportedly said that Crisp had a life-changing encounter while living in that program, a Christian discipleship program called “God’s House of Hope.” Crisp regained custody of his two children on July 13, 2021. He went on to become a counselor and mentor. And it was as a pastor that he allegedly walked into Crook’s office and revealed what really happened to the missing Taylor.
Crisp admitted to killing Taylor on March 10, 2019 and getting rid of the body, Crook reportedly said. The victim’s truck was found on Blair Cemetery Road in Monroe County. The case went cold until Crisp allegedly stepped forward. Now investigators have to find the body.
“Crisp has cooperated fully with investigators and yet another attempt to locate the remains of Mr. Taylor was carried out earlier this week,” Monroe County deputies wrote Thursday.
The investigation was ongoing.
“As a believer myself, I hate it for the guy,” Crook reportedly said. “In the physical realm, he has to deal with the choices that he made, but in the spiritual side of it, you’re excited for the freedom that he has found in doing this. And then you hope that there’s healing for the family through this process as well.”
Amy Coyle, of Gold’s House of Hope, recently showed up to Crisp’s bond hearing.
“We know that God is a just God, and He forgives, but we also have to take action for our responsibilities, so today we just ask that God has mercy, whatever that looks like, whatever the steps is that we need to take for Eric to walk through this,” she told WCBI.
Note: We added Crisp’s detail that his children saw him in chains for the drug trafficking case in May 2019. This would have been about two months after he allegedly killed Taylor.
[Screenshot via WCBI]