Man charged in Young Dolph killing asks for trial to be moved outside of Shelby County

Justin Johnson, one of the men accused of carrying out the killing of Young Dolph in November 2021, has filed a motion to have the case heard in a different jurisdiction or to have jurors brought from a different county.

Luke Evans, the attorney representing Johnson, wrote in the motion that the nature of the allegations against Johnson, pretrial publicity and the “specific and inflammatory nature of that publicity” would prevent Johnson from having a fair trial by a Shelby County jury.

“As to the prejudicial nature of the publicity, the articles attached hereto speak for themselves,” Evans wrote in the motion. “However, one point to highlight is the comment sections related to the online publicity, which display comments that are readily available to anyone who visits any of the websites displaying one of these articles. Furthermore, not only are these comments viewable by the general public, they were arguably created by persons who would make up the venire (jury pool) in this cause.”

Evans cites comments from a story published by FOX13 on Johnson’s arrest, pointing to comments that called for the death penalty, called Johnson guilty and talked about his arrest taking place in Indiana.

In addition to the comments, Evans called stories detailing Johnson’s history with the criminal justice system as “indicative of the tone and temper of most of the local media coverage related to the matter.”

“Since the time of the victim’s death in this matter, the victim has been portrayed in the media as a philanthropist, a ‘hero,’ and the ‘king of Memphis,’ ‘a trailblazing creative’ whose life was dedicated to giving back to the community,” he wrote. “In contrast, the media focused on the accused’s ‘history of violent crime.’”

Evans also pointed to Instagram creating a photograph frame based on Young Dolph’s album “King of Memphis” that allowed users to add to profile pictures as another exposure that would prejudice Johnson. Memorial services, including one that was hosted at the FedExForum and streamed online, were also mentioned as prejudicial.

Press conferences hosted by the police and prosecutors in the case were also targeted as reasons for changing the venue of the trial.

Shelby County judges have been reluctant to grant venue changes in recent months, citing the vast size of Shelby County, the decline in local news consumption and the ability of jurors to make an unbiased judgment even with some knowledge of the criminal case.

Background on the murder trial

Young Dolph, born Adolph Thornton Jr., was shot and killed Nov. 17, 2021, inside Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies on Airways Boulevard. In the wake of the shooting, the Memphis Police Department released photos of two people holding firearms at the scene.

An autopsy report found that Young Dolph, 36, had about 22 gunshot wounds on his body.

Four people have been charged in connection to his killing. Johnson and Cornelius Smith were the first two charged with his death, and are alleged to have been the ones who carried out the shooting.

A third person, Hernandez Govan, was later added to the indictment and arrested. Prosecutors have said he was the person who planned the murder. With Govan’s arrest, the charge of conspiracy was added to the indictment for all three men.

Jermarcus Johnson, Justin Johnson’s brother, was the final person to be arrested. He is accused of delivering money and assisting his brother and Smith in having phone conversations after the killing.

On June 9, 2023, Jermarcus Johnson entered a guilty plea to three counts of accessory after the fact.

In October, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee V. Coffee, who originally presided over the case, was ordered by the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals to recuse himself from the case.

More: New judge assigned to Young Dolph murder case following court-ordered recusal

Evans had filed a motion to have Coffee removed because the judge had signed an order preventing Justin Johnson from having contact with anyone except his lawyer after Johnson was accused of recording a rap song from a jail phone.

Evans argued that Coffee did this without hearing evidence, and hence showed bias in the case.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Mitchell was assigned to the case after Coffee recused himself.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Young Dolph killing: suspect files for change of venue for trial