The EAGLE has confirmed that former Oxford police officer Matthew Kinne will take a plea deal this week for the murder of Dominique Clayton. The sentencing hearing will take place Friday at the Union County Courthouse in New Albany.

Lafayette County Circuit Clerk Jeff Busby, assistant district attorney Mickey Mallette and attorney Carlos Moore, who represents the Clayton family each confirmed Kinney will take a plea deal of a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Kinne, who was arrested and charged with allegedly murdering Clayton while she slept in her home in 2019, has been awaiting trial for nearly two years.

On May 19, 2019, Clayton was found dead by one of her children in her bedroom of her 1009 Suncrest Drive residence in the Brittany Woods subdivision. Clayton died from what Lafayette County Coroner Rocky Kennedy later confirmed was from a gunshot wound to her head.

Kinne was arrested the following day and three days later was fired from the Oxford Police Department. Two other OPD officers resigned the next month in the wake of Clayton’s death.

A Lafayette County Grand Jury in August 2019 indicted Kinne on a capital murder charge and he plead not guilty during an arraignment in September 2019. He has been awaiting trial since then. In August 2019, Kinne was transferred from the Panola County Jail to the Union County Jail after a photo surfaced which showed him eating a meal at the guard desk unsupervised and unrestrained.

Attempts by the EAGLE to contact attorney Tony Farese, who is representing Kinne, for comment have been unsuccessful as of the publishing of this story.

In June  2019, the Clayton family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Oxford and the Oxford Police Department for $5 million dollars in the wake of Clayton’s death. No public updates regarding the status of the lawsuit have been made available since it was filed.