Trials
KNOE reported a Lincoln Parish jury found Virgil Mack Jr. guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of Ontario Spivey.
KNOE and KALB reported Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, that a Lincoln Parish jury on Wednesday, Oct. 28, found Virgil Mack Jr. guilty of second-degree murder in the Sept. 4, 2025, killing of Ontario Spivey at the USA Travel Plaza on West Alabama Avenue in Ruston. He has not been sentenced. The stations said the sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison without parole. They also reported a 2023 Las Vegas accusation whose trial has not started.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer · · Updated
Wednesday's guilty verdict is the jury's finding. He has not been sentenced. Life in prison without parole is what KNOE and KALB say the sentence for second-degree murder is. The Las Vegas case is the accusation those pages say has not gone to trial.
KNOE reported Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in a story by Charles Quigley published at 12:49 p.m. CDT, that a Lincoln Parish jury found a man guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. The story's dateline is Ruston, La., and the station tag on that dateline is KNOE. KALB published the same story, by the same reporter, at the same 12:49 p.m. CDT, with the same KNOE dateline. The two pages use the same sentences. Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, is the day both pages give for the verdict. Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, is the day both pages were published.
Both pages reported jurors said that Virgil Mack Jr. killed Ontario Spivey on Sept. 4, 2025, at the USA Travel Plaza on West Alabama Avenue. Jurors said is the wording on both pages. Both reported that following the shooting, Mack led police on a high-speed chase that ended in Marshall, Texas, according to court records. Both reported Mack has yet to be sentenced, and that the sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison without parole. Yet to be sentenced and life in prison without parole are not the same step. The life term is what the pages say that count carries. It is not a term the stories say a judge has already imposed.
Both pages reported the District Attorney's Office for the 3rd Judicial District said Mack was out on bond at the time of the shooting. Both reported Mack is accused of killing his roommate, Dyamond Hamilton, in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2023, and that that trial has not yet started. An accusation in a case whose trial has not started is not the Lincoln Parish verdict. The pages did not print an age for Mack or for Spivey. Wednesday's verdict is the finding in Ruston. The Las Vegas matter is the accusation the district attorney's office described to the stations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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