Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich has announced updates in the following cases.
Three plead guilty in death of pizza driver
Three men pled guilty Friday to a botched robbery plan in 2016 in which a pizza delivery driver was shot and killed when she tried to drive off.
The three defendants include triggerman Marquez Thompson, 19, and two accomplices, Charles McClellan, 18, and Leanthony Primer, 26. All pled guilty to second-degree murder and attempted especially aggravated robbery. Thompson, who was 16 at the time, was sentenced to 40 years in prison, while McClellan and Primer each were sentenced to 20 years by Criminal Court Judge W. Mark Ward.
Investigators said that on the evening of Nov. 16, 2016, the three called Domino’s Pizza and ordered a delivery for an address on Joy Lane in southeast Memphis. When Domino’s driver Mia Jones arrived at the address, the homeowner said he did not order a pizza, so she left. As Jones was driving away, however, the three defendants were waiting at the intersection of Joy Lane and Ketchum Road where they tried to open her car doors which were locked. When Jones began to drive away, Thompson shot at her several times.
The victim, who was hit in the right side, continued driving west on Ketchum and crashed into a guardrail after going through the intersection at Airways Blvd. She was taken to a hospital where she died about an hour later.
The case was handled by Chief Prosecutor Kirby May of the DA’s Vertical Team 5, which handles cases from General Sessions Division 13 and Criminal Court Division 9.
Man pleads guilty in sword attack
A 24-year-old man charged with critically injuring a woman this summer by slashing her with a sword pled guilty Friday to attempted first-degree murder. The vote was 11-1 for guilty.
Defendant Brennan Jones entered his plea in Criminal Court, where Judge Bobby Carter sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Jones was tried in the same court last month, but the jury could not reach a unanimous jury and a mistrial was declared.
Investigators said the attack occurred around 10 a.m. on June 17 this year near Harris Avenue and Jeannine Street in southeast Memphis, where the 31-year-old victim was found with severe cuts to her neck and abdomen. She was hospitalized for two weeks.
Parts of the attack were recorded on video surveillance in the neighborhood.
The case was handled by Chief Prosecutor Chris Lareau and Asst. Dist. Atty. Forrest Edwards of the DA’s Vertical Team 3, which handled cases in General Sessions Division 11 and Criminal Court Division 3.
Sex offender convicted in attack of elderly woman
A registered violent sex offender was convicted on Nov. 1 of beating, raping and robbing an elderly woman after forcing his way into her home in Whitehaven.
Defendant Stanley Lee Jefferson Jr., 35, was linked to the crime by DNA evidence and by the ankle monitor he was wearing that placed him at the woman’s address the evening of the attack on Sept. 7, 2015, in the area of Shelby Drive and Elvis Presley Boulevard.
A Criminal Court jury convicted Jefferson of aggravated rape, especially aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and theft of property over $1,000. He remains in custody and will be sentenced Dec. 6 by Judge Chris Craft.
According to testimony, at around 8 p.m. the 2015 date Jefferson forced his way into the woman’s home after telling her he was a sheriff’s deputy. He beat the 76-year-old woman until she was unconscious, then raped her, took her cellphone and stole her car. The victim was unconscious in her home for some 36 hours before she was discovered. Jefferson was developed as a suspect and confessed to the attack when confronted with DNA evidence and GPS technology from his ankle monitor.
Jefferson, who has several prior felony convictions, was convicted in 2008 of aggravated sexual battery of a child and was placed on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry as a violent offender against children.
The trial this week was handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Dru Carpenter and Jamie Kidd of the DA’s Special Victims Unit, which prosecutes cases of child sexual abuse and severe physical abuse of child victims; rape and aggravated rape of adult victims, and abuse of elderly and vulnerable adults.
Defendant pleads guilty in death of elderly man
A 26-year-old man pled guilty on Oct. 29 to second-degree murder in the death last year of an elderly man who suffered head injuries after being punched in the face.
Terrick Tabor was sentenced to 25 years in prison without the possibility for parole in a settlement approved by Criminal Court Judge Bobby Carter.
Investigators said that on June 15 last year Tabor went to the home of 79-year-old Gean Henderson near South Third and Shelby Drive in southwest Memphis to rob him. Tabor punched Henderson in the face one or two times, causing him to fall and strike his head. Tabor took his wallet and left.
Henderson called his son to tell him about the robbery, then called him again about an hour later to tell him he was not feeling well and that his head was hurting. The son took him to the hospital, but Henderson’s condition worsened and he died two days later from head trauma.
The case was handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Alyssa Hennig and Jeff Jones of the DA’s Special Victims Unit (SVU), which prosecutes cases of child sexual abuse and severe physical abuse of child victims; rape and aggravated rape of adult victims, and abuse of elderly and vulnerable adults.
Florida inmate indicted in 2 local rapes from 1980s
A Memphis man linked by his DNA to two rapes more than 30 years ago was extradited last week from a Florida prison where he had been serving a life sentence for a series of sex crimes, assaults and other offenses.
Jimmy Love, 54, was indicted in 2015 as a John Doe based on the DNA profile developed from biological evidence in the rape of a 21-year-old woman in Raleigh in the summer of 1986. The profile had been entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which in 2017 yielded a potential match with Love.
Love was located in the Hardee Correctional Institute in Bowling Green, Fla., where Memphis authorities obtained DNA swabs from him to confirm the match. Love had been an inmate in Florida since his multiple criminal convictions there in 1994.
In Memphis, his DNA then also linked him to a November 1987 rape case. In 2018 a Shelby County grand jury indicted him on two counts of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.
By law, the indictments in the two Memphis cases remained secret until he was taken into custody here last week.
The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Gavin Smith of the DA’s SVU.
Clerk sentenced to 22 years in fatal shooting
A North Memphis store clerk who chased and killed a teen who had shoplifted a beer was sentenced on Oct. 31 to 22 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
Defendant Anwar Ghazali, 30, who was convicted by a jury in August of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting 17-year-old Dorian Harris last year, was sentenced by Criminal Court Judge W. Mark Ward.
The shooting occurred around 10 p.m. on March 29, 2018, at the Top Stop Shop at 1127 Springdale where Harris entered the store, grabbed a beer from the cooler and left the store without paying.
Ghazali pulled a .40-caliber handgun from under the counter and ran out of the store in pursuit of Harris. The clerk fired several shots and returned to the store without calling police.
Harris’ body was found two days later in a yard at the rear of 1149 Springdale near the store. The medical examiner said he was shot in back of his left thigh, striking a femoral artery and vein and causing him to bleed to death.
The case was handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Tracye Jones and Lora Fowler.
