Caroline Beach
Brandon Theesfeld, a former University of Mississippi student, will plead guilty to a first degree murder charge for the murder of Ally Kostial on Aug. 27 at the Lafayette County Courthouse.
Kostial was a junior marketing major, a member of Alpha Phi sorority, the President of the Ole Miss golf club and a fitness teacher at the University Rec Center. Her murder followed months of alleged harrassment from Theesfeld.
The last surveillance of Kostial showed her entering a gray van near a bar in Oxford which took her back home from the Square.
Her roommates at the time stated that Ally returned home to leave once again a short while after.
Kostial’s body was found by local law enforcement near Sardis Lake on July 20, 2019. According to autopsy reports, her death was the result of 8 gunshot wounds.
Two days after the discovering of her body, Theesfeld was arrested and plead not guilty for the charge of capital murder.
Following more than two years of trial delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Theesfeld’s attorney, Tony Farese, has formally announced a shift in the ongoing trial.
Theesfeld has taken a plea deal that will force him to plead guilty to the murder of Kostial in exchange for a reducded sentence from the jury.
“We have a plea agreement where the charge of capital murder will be reduced to first degree murder with a mandatory life sentences,” Farese said.
Under the new plea deal, Theesfeld may request a conditional release after he turns 65 and has served 15 years of his mandatory life sentence.
