The Shelby County District Attorney’s office has announced developments in the following cases.
Man indicted in homicide outside downtown bar
A 28-year-old man has been indicted on second-degree murder charges in the early-morning shooting death last year of a woman outside a Downtown bar, Shelby County Districk Attorney General Amy Weirich announced last Tuesday July 30.
Defendant Alan Neal is being held in the Shelby County Jail.
Investigators said Neal exchanged gunfire with another man at around 4:30 a.m. on March 18, 2018, on Second Street at Lt. George W. Lee Avenue near the Purple Haze night club.
The man was struck in the left leg, but a bystander, Toshia Addison, 41, also was struck. She died in a hospital a month later. Ballistics later showed that the bullets came from Neal’s gun.
The case is being handled by Chief Prosecutor Paul Hagerman of the DA’s Crime Strategies Prosecution Unit, which incorporates and expands the work of the Multi-Agency Gang Unit, the Organized Crime Unit, Project Safe Neighborhood/Gundone, GunStat, the Safe Streets Task Force and the Violent Crime Unit.
Career criminal pleads guilty to 1997 murder
A convicted armed career criminal already serving a life sentence for federal crimes pled guilty on Thursday, Aug. 1, to killing an armored car courier in a 1997 robbery, according to Weirich.
Defendant Andrew Thomas was sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in a settlement approved by the widow of the courier, James Day, who survived 29 months before dying of complications from the gunshot wound to his head.
In court, she thanked Thomas for his plea and for “freeing me from my own cemetery.”
A federal appeals court two years ago overturned Thomas’s 2001 conviction and death sentence in the case, and awarded him a new trial.
Thomas, 46, was scheduled to be re-tried this week on capital murder charges but entered his plea before the start of the trial before Criminal Court Judge W. Mark Ward.
He entered an Alford plea, or best interest plea, in which a defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges the likelihood of conviction if going to trial. An Alford plea has the same legal effect as a guilty plea.
A codefendant, Anthony Bond, pled guilty in federal court to being Thomas’s accomplice and identified Thomas as the man who shot Day in the head on April 21, 1997, during the holdup at Walgreen’s in the 5500 block of Summer Avenue.
In 1998, both men were sentenced to life in federal prison for the armed robbery.
When Day died on Oct. 2, 1999, Thomas and Bond were indicted, tried and convicted in 2001 on state murder charges.
Bond, now 41, was sentenced to life in state prison, while Thomas — who had 16 prior armed-robbery convictions — was sentenced to death.
The case was handled by Deputy Dist. Atty. Ray Lepone and by Asst. Dist. Attys. Tracye Jones and Holly Palmer.
Woman gets 18 years in murder case
A Memphis woman has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for her role in the murder last year of a 29-year-old man in Raleigh, Weirich said on Friday, Aug. 2. Kaci Calderon, 21, pled guilty in Criminal Court to facilitation to commit first-degree murder in the shooting death and attempted robbery of victim Nicholas Brunetti. The settlement was approved by Judge Bobby Carter.
Last month Jamarcus Miller, 24, was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting and was sentenced to life in prison.
Investigators said Calderon, an acquaintance of the victim, set up a meeting with Brunetti on the evening of Jan. 6, 2018, in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 5000 block of Yale Road. Her plan, however, was to have her boyfriend, Miller, rob Brunetti.
Brunetti was shot five times and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The case is being handled by Chief Prosecutor Chris Lareau and Felony Asst. Matt McLeod of the DA’s Vertical Team 3, which handles all cases assigned to General Sessions Division 11 and Criminal Court Division 3.
Teens indicted in Parkway Village homicide
Two teens have been indicted on first-degree murder charges in the shooting death last summer during a holdup attempt at a Parkway Village apartment complex, Weirich said on Friday, Aug. 2.
The defendants — Micah Boose, 18, and Ryan Sutton, 17 — also were indicted on two counts of attempted especially aggravated robbery and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Both are being held on $500,000 bonds.
On Aug. 19, 2018, on Cotton Lane in the Cottonwood Apartments, Boose and Sutton got out of a car and confronted two men they saw standing by a stop sign. While attempting to rob the men, the teens began firing weapons, striking and killing 47-year-old Pedro Juarez-Hernandez.
A second victim ran after the gunmen, but they shot him in the left thigh and escaped. Boose was arrested the following day, while Sutton turned himself in a week later.
The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Paul Goodman, chief prosecutor of the DA’s Vertical Prosecution Team 4, which handles all cases in General Sessions Division 12 and Criminal Court 4.
Man indicted in domestic-related homicide
A Frayser man has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and other charges related to a domestic shooting in May, Weirich said on Monday, Aug. 5.
Darunn Turner, 38, also was indicted on employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony, being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun and domestic assault. He is being held in the Shelby County Jail.
On May 19, 2019, police were called to the 900 block of North Frayser Circle where they found 20-year-old Marcus Powells suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Also, a 40-year-old woman was transported with gunshot wounds to her foot.
An investigation showed that following a domestic dispute over a lost necklace, Turner left the scene, then returned and began firing shots from his vehicle.
The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Ryan Thompson of the DA’s Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit (DVPU), which prosecutes felony cases of domestic assault and homicide committed by intimate partners.
The Unit also works closely with the Shelby County Family Safety Center to provide services and assistance to victims and their families.
Three indicted in Parkway Village killing
Three men have been indicted on first-degree murder and other charges in the shooting death of a 42-year-old Parkway Village man and the attempted robbery of his son in January, Weirich said Monday, Aug. 5.
The defendants — Dareon Brown, 26, Junior Johnson Jr., 22, and Marquan Perry, 22 — are under indictment for first-degree murder, murder in the perpetration of a robbery, attempted first-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery.
An investigation showed that on Jan. 26, 2019, Mariko Faulkner and his 20-year-old son were in a vehicle in the Shadowbrook Townhomes area near Getwell Road and Winchester Road when they were confronted by three men who attempted to rob them.
When the victim attempted to drive away, he was shot several times through the windshield with an assault rifle, while another suspect attempted to take his son’s wallet. The father later died from his wounds.
The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Stephanie Johnson and Will Cranford.
Man gets 22 years in murder of nephew
A southeast Memphis man has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for the shooting death of his nephew two years ago at the victim’s residence in southeast Memphis, Weirich said Monday.
Defendant Ruben Walton, 45, was convicted of second-degree murder following a jury trial in May. He was sentenced Friday by Criminal Court Judge James Lammey.
Witnesses said Walton knocked on the door at a residence in the 4600 block of Sandy Park Drive and that when his nephew, Israel Falkner, 25, came to the door, an argument erupted between the two.
The victim’s mother tried to separate the men, but Walton pulled a gun and began firing.
Police found Falkner in the front yard, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
The case was handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Stephanie Johnson and Jamie Kidd.
