JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Tasia Fortune was apparently killed in a drug dispute before her body was hung in a tree in a “staged” lynching behind an abandoned home in the Mississippi capital this summer, a detective testified Friday.
Fortune was killed in a disagreement about drugs, and she fought hard with her attackers before she was killed, Jackson police Detective Samuel Dukes told the court. Citing the medical examiner's opinion, he also said the hanging was “staged.”
Fortune was Black, and the Aug. 3 discovery of her hanging body stoked fear and drew widespread attention because the scene recalled actual lynchings in the Southern state, which has a long and troubled history of racial violence.
Authorities haven’t disclosed the exact cause of Fortune’s death or said why they think her body was hanged afterward, but they ruled it a homicide and arrested two men, both of them also Black, on murder charges. They also issued an arrest warrant for an unnamed third person.
Outside court, Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told reporters that she had been aware that her daughter died before her body was hanged.
“What bothered me was they said Tasia fought for her life. I know she did. I know my daughter,” Spivey said.
The hearing was meant to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send the case against the first man arrested, Jarques Ratliff, to a grand jury for a possible indictment. It will resume Sept. 30.
Ratliff, 51, was arrested in mid-September and has pleaded not guilty. He remains jailed without bond. Police arrested a second defendant, 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr., this week.
During Friday's hearing, Ratliff blurted out in court that he and Fortune were friends.
“It sounded sincere. Tasia had a lot of friends," Spivey said later. "I hope if he is innocent that he can prove he’s innocent. We don’t want any innocent people going to jail.”
Ratliff’s stepdaughter, Lashuna Jones, was among her father's supporters at court.
“He didn’t do it, and I’m behind him,” she said.
Spivey has said her daughter, who had four children, struggled with homelessness in recent years, and that she wasn’t sure where Fortune was living at the time of her death. She said Fortune had talked about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.
White reported from Detroit.
Christy Spivey poses with a portrait of her late daughter, Tasia Fortune, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Marion, Ky. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Christy Spivey poses with a portrait of her late daughter, Tasia Fortune, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Marion, Ky. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi detailed the proposal to reporters outside the U.N. Security Council on Friday, saying it would also restart stalled talks with the U.S. on Iran's nuclear program.
“The seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan,” he said.
Araghchi said initial steps would take about four to five days to complete and the strait would be open on the sixth day. “And on day seven, the talks with the U.S. will be started for the final deal on mutually agreed subjects,” he said, referring to the nuclear program.
Iran's disruption of the strait — through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas transited before the war — has emerged as its main point of leverage. The effects have been felt far beyond the Middle East.
The White House said only that U.S. officials are having positive and constructive conversations with mediators on the Iran war. In response to questions from The Associated Press, it said the U.S. is facilitating significant oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz.
There was no immediate comment from Gulf Arab nations, although a person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, told The Associated Press that Saudi Arabia was skeptical of the latest push for a deal.
The proposal, conveyed to the U.S. by mediators and in public by Araghchi strongly resembles the so-called Memorandum of Understanding reached in June, but with an accelerated timetable. The earlier agreement, which called for a 60-day interim period, quickly collapsed as Iran resumed attacks on shipping in the strait.
Trump has said he is in no rush to reach a deal, even as high oil prices fuel inflation. On the Iranian side, there are questions as to whether the hard-liners who dominate the security forces would accept compromises championed by moderates like President Masoud Pezeshkian.
“If Trump calculates this arrangement is worthwhile and can bring political benefit before the midterms and reduce gas prices, perhaps we'll see flexibility not seen in previous weeks,” Parsi said. But he noted “deep suspicion,” especially around the prospect of Iran merely buying time to ship out more of its oil and ease its economic pain.
In the latest sign of diplomatic movement, Pezeshkian hosted the prime minister of Qatar early Friday. Qatar has been a key mediator, including during hours of indirect Iran-U.S. talks at the U.N. this week.
It was not clear how long Pezeshkian and Araghchi would stay in the U.S. after Pezeshkian addressed the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders on Wednesday, ending his speech by saying Iran remained open to diplomacy.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on the same day, said “if there’s an opportunity to exchange ideas and messages, we will.”
After multiple failed attempts at a deal, however, suspicion is high on both sides. The U.S. and Israel have attacked Iran twice while it was engaged in nuclear talks, and the U.S. and Iran accuse each other of having swiftly violated the June agreement.
“The Iranians already know that the chances of this not being accepted by Trump are much higher than the opposite,” Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank, wrote on X.
“They want to show that they were ready for diplomacy and that it was the United States that, for the third time, decided to attack in the middle of a diplomatic track — something that people within (Iran’s) strategic community have been anticipating over the past few days.”
The proposal would include Lebanon, where Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been mostly observing a ceasefire. It's not clear, however, if it would include the revived conflict between Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia, which has put even more pressure on global markets.
Iran appears to think the Houthis' newly enhanced ability to threaten the Bab el-Mandeb strait on the Red Sea — another trade chokepoint on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula — could push Trump to make a deal.
Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military adviser to Iran's new supreme leader, told state television that the Americans “face a new problem called the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.”
He added: “I think the process that is unfolding is in our favor, and the Americans will be forced to accept Iran’s conditions.”
With the Houthis' latest surge in attacks, Saudi Arabia was skeptical of Araghchi’s latest push for a deal with the U.S., according to the person familiar with the matter.
The kingdom, along with other Gulf states, had advocated over the summer for a return to negotiations, saying they could live with an agreement that gave Iran a temporary role in managing the Strait of Hormuz, the person said.
But the Saudi calculations changed as the Houthis seized Yemen’s strategic Red Sea coast from pro-government forces and a vital Saudi pipeline came under attack.
Earlier this month, Gulf leaders planned to gather in Oman to discuss an emerging agreement between Oman and Iran on the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the two countries. But the meeting was canceled after Saudi Arabia called for amendments, only some of which were accepted by Iran, the person said.
Iran's leaders have sought to project unity, but some hard-liners want to continue or escalate the war to secure bigger U.S. concessions and have criticized Pezeshkian and Araghchi's diplomatic steps this week.
Firebrand lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei wrote on X that merely meeting with “the aggressor enemy” showed weakness. Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a panel of Shiite clerics who appoint the supreme leader, said “there is no path other than resistance.”
The head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, highlighted the U.N. speech by “the esteemed president” while focusing on Pezeshkian’s comments that Iran doesn’t fear war.
Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who served as chief negotiator in earlier talks with the United States, provided a rare public acknowledgment of the internal divide.
“There is a view that speaks of war but offers no prospect or mechanism for bringing it to a powerful conclusion,” he wrote on social media. “At the opposite end is a current that makes the error of underestimating national capabilities.”
He added: “The first error keeps the country in a state of permanent crisis, while the second hands national resources and dignity over to the enemy.”
Associated Press reporters Josh Boak and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
Motorcyclists ride during a state-organized motorcycle parade called "Janfada," meaning "Sacrifice for Iran,", in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Firefighters ride motorcycles during a state-organized motorcycle parade called "Janfada," meaning "Sacrifice for Iran,", in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman chants slogan as she holds an Iranian flag while motorcyclists ride during a state-organized motorcycle parade called "Janfada," meaning "Sacrifice for Iran,", in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A family ride on a motorcycle during a state-organized motorcycle parade called "Janfada," meaning "Sacrifice for Iran,", in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
