A Mississippi Coast man will spend life in prison after stabbing his roommate in Gulfport

A Gulfport man will spend life in prison after he pleaded guilty last week in the stabbing death of a roommate at a halfway house for recovering drug addicts, the Harrison County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.

Christopher Moore, 44, first tried to justify the stabbing, calling it self-defense. But evidence collected by the Gulfport Police Department contradicted that claim, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Moore pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Friday.

“You cannot take the law into your own hands,” Circuit Court Judge Lisa Dodson told Moore, according to the release.

“I am so very sorry, Your Honor,” Moore said, according to the release. “I wish I could sit down with this man’s family and give them closure. I wish I could relive that day.”

Moore pleaded guilty to killing Darrell Parker, 63.

On August 3, 2022 police were called by two of Moore and Parker’s roommates to the halfway house on St. Charles Street in Gulfport, authorities said.

Officers found Parker “lying lifeless” in the kitchen with stab wounds on his head, back and chest, the District Attorney’s office said.

Police found two broken knives next to Parker’s body and a third knife in the trash can, authorities said.

Witnesses said Moore was behind Parker with his arms around his neck, and saw Moore stab Parker while holding Parker in a headlock, the news release said.

Moore was a convicted felon who had been out of prison for six months, according to court testimony. He had previously been convicted for armed robbery, records showed.

“This was a tragic and senseless act which resulted in the death of a vulnerable man who could not defend himself,” District Attorney Crosby Parker said in the news release. “The maximum allowable sentence under the law was appropriate in this case.”

Assistant District Attorneys Haley Broom and Chris Daniel prosecuted.

Staff writer Margaret Baker contributed reporting.