A routine enforcement of a no-smoking policy at a Biloxi Waffle House turned deadly the morning after Thanksgiving 2015 when 52-year-old waitress Julie Ann Brightwell was shot once in the head after telling a customer he could not smoke inside. Surveillance video from the restaurant captured the confrontation. The customer, identified as 45-year-old former Biloxi firefighter Johnny Max Mount, produced a 9mm handgun, shot Brightwell, then placed the weapon on a truck hood before exiting and being arrested. Brightwell was taken to a nearby hospital and died of her injuries.

Mount was charged with first-degree murder and tried in June 2023. The defense raised an insanity plea based on a 2002 car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury and the loss of a leg; Mount testified during the trial and made statements that God pulled the trigger. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder and returned a life sentence. Julie Brightwell is remembered by family as warm and loving.

Did anyone know Julie or have information about that Waffle House that morning?