LINCOLN COUNTY, Miss. ( WJTV ) – Three family members of a Mississippi woman, who was killed in 2017 , were awarded millions of dollars in a wrongful death lawsuit against the convicted killer.

The Daily Leader reported the heirs of Sheila Burage, a victim of Willie Corey Godbolt , filed a lawsuit in May 2018 seeking punitive damages and compensation in the amount of $11 million. They also filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking the maximum damages allowed under state law.

In June 2024, a judge awarded the Burage’s heirs $1 million each for compensatory damages and a total of $15 million for punitive damages.

In 2020, a Lincoln County jury convicted Godbolt in the 2017 killings of eight people, including Burage. He received a sentence of life in prison for each murder conviction and a death sentence for each capital murder conviction.

Godbolt shot and killed eight people in May 2017, including his mother-in-law and a Lincoln County deputy, during a house-to-house shooting rampage.

In March 2024, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences of Godbolt. They declined to rehear the appeal in May 2024.

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