The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office has announced several convictions, pleas, sentencings and indictments.
Child molester sentenced to 110 years
A Memphis man with a history of sexually abusing children was sentenced by a judge to 110 years in prison on Oct. 16, according to Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.
Jimmie Liddell, 53, was convicted in August on four counts of aggravated sexual battery, one count of attempted aggravated sexual battery and one count of solicitation of a minor: to wit aggravated sexual battery.
Liddell, a previously convicted sex offender, was convicted this summer of sexually molesting four boys and two girls between ages 4 and 9 in April 2016 inside his Whitehaven apartment while the parents were tending a grill outside.
Robbery crime spree ends with guilty pleas
An accused serial robber scheduled for trial pled guilty Oct. 15 to holding up four Family Dollar stores and a Mapco at gunpoint during a three-week span last year, Weirich said.
Steven Craig, 26, was sentenced by Criminal Court Judge Bobby Carter to 14 years, four months and 24 days on the five aggravated robberies. He also consented to a violation of probation charge from a previous conviction of identity theft and forgery, which added two years and a day to his sentence.
Investigators said Craig carried out robberies at various locations last year between Oct. 18 and Nov. 11 when he robbed the Family Dollar at 1636 Getwell. Craig unknowingly fled the store with a tracking device that led police to his location a short time later.
Officers found an air pistol and clothing matching that of the robber in the backyard of a residence on Woodbourne Court. When police received permission to search the home, they found Craig inside.
South Memphis man indicted in beating death
A South Memphis man has been indicted on first-degree murder charges related to the beating death of a 51-year-old man in May, Weirich said in an Oct. 21 press release. Defendant Martez Goodman, 35, is being held on $1 million bond.
Investigators said that on May 26, 2019, the victim, Roosevelt Wright Jr., was sitting in his truck on South Wellington near Walker when Goodman approached him and dragged him out.
Goodman then began punching and kicking him. Wright was hospitalized and died on June 7 from brain injuries, a broken neck, blunt force trauma and internal injuries.
Estranged husband indicted in wife’s death
A Memphis man accused of shooting his wife to death in front of their two young children in April has been indicted on first-degree murder charges, Weirich announced on Oct. 21.
Defendant Michael J. McKinnie, 40, also was indicted on charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, being a convicted in possession of a handgun and reckless endangerment. He is being held without bond.
Witnesses said that on April 25, 2019, at Kentucky and Virginia in the South Bluffs area south of Downtown, McKinnie was waiting in a parked car when his wife, Latarica Stripling, drove up with their two children in the backseat. McKinnie dragged Stripling out, pulled a pistol and shot her in the head. McKinnie was arrested two weeks later.
