MoxVib

Judge offers explanation of high bond, confusion

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A Jones County man who is known on Facebook as a fence-hopping turkey poacher believes his videos must have ruffled the feathers of some people on a powerful perch. 

That’s what Carl Ray Holifield, 48, said of the $125,000 bond that he had to post after being charged last week with intimidating a witness — after first being mistakenly released from jail on a “recognizance bond,” he said. Holifield was accused of making online threats to a conservation officer who wrote him a ticket and the state Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case.

“I feel like I’m on a murder trial ... And who has to bail out twice in one day?” Holifield said. “I’m a comedian. It was taken out of context. I’d never harm anyone.”

Holifield and many of his Facebook followers commented on the high bond amount, pointing out that people accused of dealing drugs or actually committing violent offenses receive lower bonds when they make their initial court appearances. 

But the majority of the bond amounts those are being compared to are set by judges in Jones County Justice Court or Laurel Municipal Court. Judge Dal Williamson set Holifield’s bond in Jones County Circuit Court. And he didn’t find anything funny about the videos he saw in the courtroom. 

The high bond was “based upon the threatening videos” Holifield posted on Facebook that showed “deranged behavior and language toward the game warden that was downright disturbing,” Williamson said. Jones County grand jurors indicted Holifield on the charge last month after seeing the evidence against him.

At different points in the videos, Holifield is holding a shotgun in one hand and a tall beer in the other, yelling, “Come get me m - - - - rf - - - ers,” and he mentioned the wife and children of Keith Jones, a conservation officer with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “He dared the officer to come to his house and arrest him,” Williamson said. “He referred to himself as ‘the beast’ and accused the officer of ‘poking the beast.’”

As a condition of his bond, Holifield can’t have any contact with or be within 300 yards of Jones or any of his family members, and he also isn’t allowed to have any weapons or hunting devices until this case is resolved. Turkey season opens March 15.

Holifield’s arrest was handled by the Jones County Sheriff’s Department for the AG’s office, and he was at first released on a signature bond. But the judge ordered that Holifield appear before him and set his bond at $125,000 — and Holifield posted that and was released a half-hour later. There was no wrongdoing on the part of the JCSD, Williamson said, but “a lack of understanding of what type of bond was intended and what surety was required.”

Holifield said there’s a lack of understanding of his online persona.

“Poaching is my platform,” he said, and running with a shotgun and firing it is part of his schtick, along with the phrases, “You can’t stop the hop (over fences)” and “I’m coming for your birds” and “Come get me, rejects.”

Holifield’s catchphrase is similar to that of Outdoor Channel personality Mike Waddell, who has a series of videos called “Can’t Stop the Flop” online.

“I’m known for this all over the U.S. ... All of this is jokes,” Holifield said. “It’s ridiculous. I’m being railroaded.”

The charge stems from a ticket he was issued at Bogue Homa Lake on Jan. 30, 2022 — the last day of duck season, Holifield said. He showed the officer his duck-hunting stamp on an app on his phone, “but that wasn’t good enough,” Holifield said. He went to Jones County Justice Court two months later for a hearing to argue the charge, but the officer wasn’t there and the case was continued.

Holifield admitted that he was “aggravated” with the ordeal and he went on Facebook with that frustration, and that’s when he said the only thing that could be considered a threat.

“I told him he had five days to tear up the ticket or I was going on Facebook Live,” he said. Then he added a jab at conservation officer Keith Jones, saying he “looks like a leprechaun” and “if you ever decide to have kids, bring your wife over to my house so you can get some good genetics.” That video has since been removed from Holifield’s Facebook page.

“I’m a comedian,” Holifield said. “It’s being portrayed as if I threatened his wife and kids. There was no threat ... unless you consider I threatened them with sperm.”

Holifield served as president of the National Wild Turkey Federation chapter in Clarke County a few years ago and is often a guest at hunting lodges and outdoors events around the country, he said.

“I love turkey hunting ...(MDWFP officials) just want me off the national scene,” he said.

Holifield placed a video of an MDWFP Commission meeting from March 2022 into evidence to make his point. Audio of an unidentified official refers to a social-media post made by “an idiot named Carl Holifield making threatening statements toward officers.” He goes on to say that he had recently attended a meeting of conservation officers from across the country, and they were asking him about Holifield. 

“He’s known nationwide,” the official said of Holifield. “We’d like to let this gentleman know that this department is not going to tolerate those types of egregious actions” and that the state will “use every resource available to arrest and prosecute him under whichever legal statute is appropriate. We need to set a precedent that we are not going to tolerate it.

“Our conservation officers are in the field every day putting their lives on the line, so we owe them that. We can’t have people on social media threatening our officers and bringing their family members into the equation. We need to put this guy in jail.”

The AG’s office, as a matter of policy, doesn’t comment on active cases.

“He said they would use all their resources to come after me, and that’s what they’re doing,” Holifield said. “I’ve been singled out. They’re trying to make an example of me.”

He is being represented by attorney Wade Underwood of Smith County. Holifield’s followers have been posting “Free Carl Ray” and he’s selling “Free Carlray” t-shirts to help pay for his legal defense.

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