Godbolt victim’s heirs receive millions in wrongful death lawsuit

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

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

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

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

In May 2017, Godbolt shot and killed eight people, including his mother-in-law and a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy, during a home-involved shooting.

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