Jury selection begins in Lafayette County dog cruelty trial
Jury selection started in a case built on deputies’ discovery of 20 rescued animals and 10 dead dogs at a County Road 418 property south of Oxford.
Jury selection began at 9 a.m. in Lafayette County Circuit Court in the dog-cruelty case against Terry E. Pegues, a prosecution rooted in what deputies said they found at a County Road 418 property south of Oxford last summer.
The case started with a citizen complaint on Aug. 4, 2024, when Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office deputies were sent to the rural address and reported seeing several dogs that appeared severely malnourished. Investigators said they also found several dead dogs still attached to collars and chains, then served a search warrant that led to the rescue of 20 animals and the discovery of 10 dead dogs.
Pegues, 47, of 15 CR 418, was arrested on Aug. 7, 2024, and initially booked on 10 counts of animal cruelty with a $75,000 bond. He was taken to the Lafayette County Detention Center and bonded out on Aug. 8, the day after the arrest report was filed.
By September 2024, a Lafayette County grand jury had formally indicted Pegues on 10 counts of animal cruelty, moving the case from the sheriff’s office investigation into the circuit court system. The public scrutiny that followed reflected the scale of the allegations, which involved a large number of dogs and conditions that prompted rescuers to remove surviving animals from the property.
The case has carried unusual weight in Lafayette County because it reaches beyond one defendant and one rural property. County Road 418 sits in an area where residents often rely on the sheriff’s office for complaints involving neglected animals, and the outcome will help define how seriously similar reports are handled in the county going forward.
Pegues was later described as a longtime University of Mississippi employee, and university officials announced his retirement in February 2025 amid the pending animal-cruelty case. The sheriff’s office also asked anyone with information about the investigation to contact deputies or L O U Crime Stoppers.
As jury selection got underway in Lafayette County Circuit Court, the proceedings marked the first public test of the evidence gathered from the County Road 418 property and the county’s willingness to punish severe animal neglect when it is documented by law enforcement.
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