Family members of slain Bibb County deputy Joseph Whitehead are preparing to come to Macon for a court hearing Friday, during which one of the men charged in his death is scheduled to plead guilty.

Whitehead’s mother, Delores, is planning to make the trip from her home in New Jersey.

Reached by phone Wednesday, she said other family members are trying to determine whether they can attend as well. She declined further comment.

Antron Fair is scheduled to enter a guilty plea Friday afternoon in connection with Whitehead’s 2006 fatal shooting. Prosecutors have been seeking the death penalty against Fair, 27, and 26-year-old Damon Jolly, who are charged with murder in the case.

Bibb County District Attorney Greg Winters declined comment on the case Wednesday. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office referred all comment regarding the hearing to the district attorney’s office, but it’s likely that deputies involved in the raid will attend Friday’s hearing.

Messages left for Fair’s lawyers were not returned Wednesday.

Whitehead died March 23, 2006, after being shot while serving a “no-knock” warrant at a house off Montpelier Avenue.

Fair and Jolly have been held at the Bibb County jail for more than six years awaiting trial. Prosecutors re-indicted the case in 2008, adding drug and firearms charges. The state Supreme Court has reviewed issues in the case on two separate occasions.

Jolly’s trial is scheduled to begin in Chatham County on Nov. 25. Attorneys are slated to discuss matters pertaining to pretrial issues in his case at another hearing Friday.

Jeff Grube, one of Jolly’s attorneys, said word of Fair’s plan to enter a guilty plea had been circulating among jail inmates for the past week.

“It doesn’t change what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re getting ready for trial.”

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.