SHARK alert led to bust of cockfighter now charged with triple murder

Charged Tennessee killer held on $750,000 bail;  SHARK now trying to stop alleged scheduled cockfight in Mississippi

BALDWYN, Mississippi;  WALLAND, Tennessee––“We understand that an illegal cockfight is planned for the D.L. Parker pit this Saturday,  January 25,  2025,  during the day,”  Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] founder Steve Hindi emailed to fellow foes of cockfighting on January 23,  2025.

“I hope you can keep it from happening,”  Hindi said.

“We got video”

Appealing for calls to Lee County,  Mississippi sheriff Jim Johnson,  whose past record in response to SHARK tips about cockfights have reeked of chicken manure without Johnson ever verifiably setting foot on the guano-strewn pit locations,  Hindi specified that,  “The coordinates for the D.L. Parker pit are: 34.4283, -88.5835.  Address: 159A County Road 2350 Baldwyn,  MS 38824.”

(See Were two cockfights rained out, or were the cockfighters afraid of SHARKS?)

Hindi previously droned an alleged cockfight at the D.L. Parker pit in April 2023.

“We got video of the cockfighters carrying their gamecocks into D.L. Parker’s pit,  good enough to recognize faces,”  Hindi told ANIMALS 24-7 then.

Johnny Ray Wilburn

The frequent association of cockfighting with violent crimes against humans was meanwhile accentuated 360 miles northeast up I-75 by the January 21,  2025 arrest of cockfighter Johnny Ray Wilburn,  56,  of Walland,  Tennessee,  for the alleged murders of Cas Ivan Farley,  61,  Delmar Marty Farley, 59, and Norma Kay Farley, 65,   after which Wilburn allegedly burned their house to the ground.

The victims’ remains were discovered following the fire at about 9:00 p.m. on January 19,  2025.

“Norma Farley’s niece told WVLT News that Wilburn is Norma’s ex-husband’s son and was staying with the family a few days before the fire,”  reported Josh Jarnigan of WVLT News in Jackson,  Mississippi.

“Autopsies consistent with homicide”

“Sheriff James Lee Berrong said preliminary results of the autopsies are consistent with homicide as the manner of death for all three victims.

“The investigation remains active and ongoing,”  Jarnigan said.  “Wilburn is currently being held in jail on a $750,000 bond,  scheduled to appear before a Blount County Judge on Monday, January 27,  2025.”

Added Libby Cunningham for WBIR television news in Knoxville,  Tennessee,  “Court documents show that Wilburn has been in trouble with the law before and has been cited twice for participating in cockfighting in Blount and Union counties.

“According to a Blount County Sheriff’s Office Citation to the Court written in 2015,”  Cunningham continued,  “a deputy responded to a report of cockfighting on Pink Hatcher Lane in Louisville on April, 4, 2015. “

Deputy “determined the defendant brought gamecocks”

Wrote the deputy in the criminal complaint,  “I determined the defendant brought gamecocks to the event,  and also to be a spectator.  The defendant was on the property within the close proximity of the fighting area.”

Maryville,  Tennessee Daily Times reporter Mike Gibson on November 4,  2015 confirmed that “Johnny Wilburn,  47,  Nebo Mountain Road, Walland,”  was among seven people indicted by the Blount County Grand Jury on charges resulting from the April 4,  2015 cockfight raid.

Updated Cunningham,  “Court records show at least one of Wilburn’s charges tied to the complaint was dropped a year later.

SHARK set up next Wilburn bust

“Union County court records,”  Cunningham added,  “show Wilburn was arrested on January 28,  2023,  as part of a bust of a cockfighting derby in Maynardville  Tennessee.  The affidavit of complaint said when the officer arrived on the scene of an animal complaint,  they observed Wilburn at the residence,  attending a cockfight.”

A SHARK tip and video surveillance set up that bust.

Ninety-eight alleged cockfighters were cited and approximately 250 gamecocks were seized by the Union County Sheriff’s Office on that occasion.  Three children were also found on the premises.

98 suspects cited;  none jailed

Yet none of the ninety-eight suspects went to jail.  All were released after paying $50 fines.

All of them got their gamefowl back,  after the Union County Humane Society professed having insufficient cage space and personnel to impound them,  Hindi told ANIMALS 24-7.

At that,  all 98 alleged cockfighters received the maximum penalty currently allowed by Tennessee law.

The remainder of what had been planned as a day-long cockfighting derby was cancelled after the raid.

“Tennessee is one of only eight states without felony-level penalties for cockfighting,  and considers the crime a Class A misdemeanor,”  explained Ella Wales of WATE-TV in Knoxville.

“Going on for decades,”  but no previous busts

Elaborated Sam Luther of WVLT in Knoxville,   “On Little Valley Road,  between Maynardville and Sharps Chapel,  neighbors said they’ve seen and heard about cockfighting going on for decades.

“Those same neighbors added that at times upward of $100,000 is being exchanged in these cockfights,  that happen usually every other weekend,  with winners at times making more than $20,000.”

Yet neither the ANIMALS 24-7 archives,  nor NewspaperArchive.com,  nor Google includes any evident mention of a cockfight ever having been raided in Union County,  Tennessee––not in the 19th century,  not in the 20th century,  and certainly not in the previous 22-plus years of the 21st century,  until Hindi and the SHARK drone team arrived.

Testified Luther,  “The animal rights group Showing Animals Respect and Kindness,  better known as SHARK,  played a key role in the investigation.”

Last sentences for the Wagner/Rhoden murders

Johnny Ray Wilburn was charged with multiple homicide just three weeks after visiting judge Jonathan Hein in Cincinnati,  Ohio sentenced the last three defendants convicted of eight murders committed on April 22,  2016, when four members of one suspected cockfighting family,  the Wagners,  massacred seven members of another cockfighting family,  the Rhodens,  plus Hannah Mae Rhoden Gilley,  20,  fiancé of cockfighter Frankie Rhoden.

The killings,  committed near Piketon,  Ohio,  were initially believed to have resulted from a cockfighting-related feud,  possibly also involving marijuana trafficking.

Edward “Jake” Wagner gets life;  Angela Wagner gets 30 years

The killings,  however,  turned out to have originated from a custody dispute between Edward “Jake” Wagner and Hannah Mae Rhoden Gilley,  with whom “Jake” Wagner wrongly believed he had fathered a child,  after beginning a sexual relationship with her when she was only 13.

Hein sentenced Edward “Jake” Wagner,  31,  to serve life in prison with the chance of parole in 32 years,  a surprise in view that Wagner had already agreed as part of a plea bargain to serve eight consecutive life sentences.

Hein sentenced Wagner’s mother,  Angela Wagner,  to 30 years including credit for six years served;  and sentenced Angela’s mother,  Rita Holcomb,  to serve five years on probation,  pay a $750 fine,  and serve a suspended 180-day jail sentence,  seven days of which she has already served,  for lying to investigators.

(See Eight life terms plus 121 years for murders linked to cockfighting.)

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