MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Trial continues for the man charged in the murder of Memphis rapper Young Dolph on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
Justin Johnson is both charged with first-degree murder, among other felonies, in the death of Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Thornton Jr.
Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy said Johnson is the only one currently on trial and expects the trial to be done by Sept. 26. Johnson is pleading not guilty. Cornelius Smith, also charged with first-degree murder for killing Dolph, testified against Johnson and admitted to killing Dolph on the first day of the trial.
Johnson's attorney, Luke Evans, said he anticipates Hernandez Govan, who prosecutors say ordered the hit on Young Dolph, will testify as well.
Check below for what happened during the trial.
Expert witness testimony
Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman called Lt. Ma’Hajj Abdul-BaaQee to the stand. He worked with the Memphis Police Department for 26 years and was assigned to the homicide unit while working the Young Dolph murder case.
Hagmerman started by making corrections to the timeline of one of the videos previously shown to court.
Abdul-BaaQee said he retrieved video of the Crosstown Concourse Apartments from Nov. 16 and Nov. 17. He confirmed he viewed the videos with security officers and they had accurate timestamps to his knowledge, but agreed one shown to the court was incorrect, which Hagerman said was a mistake on his team's part. The video showed Justin Johnson leaving his apartment and was off by an hour. Abdul-BaaQee corrected the time for this video and Hagerman called it a "mistake" on Tuesday, in which the wrong time - 11:51 a.m. - was listed on the slate before the video, an error Hagerman said came from editing together the video for court.
In cross examination, Johnson's attorney, Luke Evans asked Abdul-BaaQee about the accuracy of the videos.
Abdul-BaaQee agreed he could not watch the videos' live view from when they were originally recorded. He watched them after they were archived and compared it to current live view to determine accuracy.
Abdul-BaaQee also agreed the system could have malfunctioned without their knowledge, but he said a computer technician was present while investigators were viewing the videos and the technician said they were accurate.
Expert witness testifies on how detectives tracked Justin Johnson's phone day of Young Dolph's murder
Hagerman next called upon Michael Garner, a current TBI personnel and former MPD employee who worked in digital forensics.
The court established Garner as an expert with call detail records with emphasis on location, which include cell tower information to record calls between different devices, and digital forensics.
He proceeded to go through a prepared presentation regarding an overview of cellular technology, requested information, analysis of carrier call detail records and mapping of carrier call detail records.
Garner said investigators are not able to pinpoint where a certain cell phone is located when it's making a call, but they are able to determine a precise area through a tower. Garner noted that cell phones will access the nearest, available tower.
Garner said he received call detail records for the phone belonging to Justin Johnson on Nov. 17, 2021, between the hours of 1 a.m. and 10 p.m. He also examined the call detail records of Cornelius Smith's phone on Nov. 17, 2021, between the hours of 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. The homicide occurred around 12:24 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2021.
The expert examined the locations of Crosstown Concourse Apartments, Valero gas station, the homicide scene and Gospel Gardens Apartments for Johnson's phone. The call detail records were converted to the central time-zone.
Garner said from 1 a.m. to 2:35 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2021, Johnson's phone was accessing a tower that provided coverage to the area of the Crosstown Concourse.
At 3:17 a.m., the phone connected to a tower that provided coverage for the area of the Valero gas station at Park and Highland, according to Garner.
At 4:49 a.m., the phone accessed a tower that had coverage for the Crosstown Concourse Apartments.
From 9:56 a.m. to 11:06 a.m., the phone connected to a tower providing coverage for the Crosstown Concourse Apartments.
At 11:30 a.m., the phone accessed a tower south of the Concourse Apartments and appeared to have already left the area of the apartments.
At 12:06 p.m. and 12:09 p.m., the phone accessed towers east of the Young Dolph homicide scene, near the Cherokee neighborhood, around Lamar and Semmes.
At 12:17 p.m., minutes before the homicide occurred, the phone accessed a tower north of the homicide scene, near the Bethel Grove area.
At 12:22 p.m., the phone accessed a tower north of the homicide scene that could provide coverage for the homicide scene.
At 12:23 p.m., the phone accessed a tower farther north of the homicide scene. Garner said it would be impossible to determine if that tower could cover the homicide scene without doing a test. However, the device also accessed another tower that covered the homicide scene. Garner said this discrepancy could indicate the phone was moving or traffic was just impeding connection and the phone was not moving.
From 12:58 p.m. to 1:57 p.m., the device accessed a tower that serviced the Gospel Garden Apartments, about 30 minutes after the homicide.
From 2:22 p.m. to 5:26 p.m., the phone connected with towers in the Hickory Hill area (that covered Hickory Hill Drive and Valleydale Drive), substantially east from the Gospel Garden Apartments.
From 5:42 p.m. to 5:48 p.m., the device went to the area of Walnut Grove and Humphreys Boulevard, Garner said, adding that there were no records to map after that time.
Tracking Cornelius Smith's phone
Garner then turned to Smith's phone records.
At 12:02 p.m., Smith's phone received an incoming voice call from Johnson's phone.
At 12:04 p.m., Smith's phone received an incoming voice call from Johnson's phone, from a tower east of the homicide scene.
Smith's phone was accessing towers that provided coverage for the area of Lamar and Semmes and the home of Hernandez Govan in Orange Mound on Bradley Street from 12-1 p.m.
The phone continually accessed a tower that provided coverage for Govan's home from 12:28 p.m. to 2:38 p.m.
The phone then accessed towers that provided coverage for the area of Lamar and Semmes until 3:19 p.m.
Smith's device then traveled around Memphis to the downtown area between 3:20 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Smith's phone then returned to the area of Govan's home between 4:16 p.m. and 4:28 p.m.
Hagerman ended his testimony, and the court broke for recess just before 12:30 p.m. The trial resumed at 2 p.m.
Digital forensics expert cross-examined
In cross examination, Garner agreed with Evans that experts are not able to pinpoint exactly where someone is located.
Garner agreed that cell phone companies use tower information for customer satisfaction, not for tracking people.
Evans pointed to Justin Johnson's phone signal at 12:23 p.m. and had Garner reiterate that the call hit two different towers.
Evans than presented a map to Garner, who agreed that it showed four tower signals that picked up Johnson' s phone around the time of the murder, all miles away from each other, including one near I-240 and another near the Memphis International Airport.
Garner agreed a lot of factors can affect the availability of a tower to receive a phone signal, which would be directed to the next nearest available tower.
Evans then asked Garner to explain the definition of drive test for cellular connection, which is used to see how a tower interacts with a cell phone during a drive time in a particular area. Garner confirmed he did not do any drive tests for the towers he discussed during his earlier testimony.
In redirect, Hagerman had Garner confirm that investigators used physical extractions to get data from Johnson and Smith's phones.
Cell phone analysis and cell phone extraction
Next, Hagerman called Jesse Browning to the stand, who has worked with MPD for 15 years and worked on the Dolph murder investigation as one of several leads on the case, with certification in cell phone analysis and cell phone extraction.
Browning said he gathered data from Johnson, Smith, Treon Ingram and others' phones in relation to the investigation.
In regard to Johnson's phone, Browning went over a prepared presentation, viewing text messages.
At 6:10 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2021, Johnson received a text from Treon Ingram. This data was retrieved from Ingram's phone.
At 2:58 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2021, Johnson sent a location drop to Ingram, the presentation showed. The location was near where the white Mercedes was found after the murder
Browning showed pictures taken at 3:16 a.m. at the Valero gas station where the alleged car swap happened.
Browning also examined presentation displayed calls between Johnson's phone and others, including Ingram, Smith, Johnson's mother, Big Jook (Anthony Mims) and Johnson's cousin around the time of Young Dolph's murder. The cousin had texted her location to Johnson, according to Browning and the presentation.
The presentation also noted Johnson's phone was also used to contact Smith's girlfriend's phone about an hour after the murder.
Browning said he saw on Johnson's rapping videos and observed Johnson had tattoos on his hands. Browning said multiple law enforcement agencies conducted a manhunt for Johnson and ultimately took him into custody in Indianapolis. Browning then repeated previous testimony that the murder weapons were never recovered and they had found the white Mercedes on Bradley Street.
Browning said information confirmed that the two who shot Dolph were wearing gloves.
Browning said Treon Ingram's DNA was found on chap stick found in the white Mercedes. Browning also confirmed that police believed Smith met with Govan near the area of Lamar and Semmes to retrieve his phone.
In cross examination from attorney Luke Evans, Browning confirmed he got involved in the Dolph murder investigation a little after the investigation started, but not at the beginning.
Browning confirmed that police cannot prove that Johnson made all those calls referred to earlier. He can only confirm that Johnson's phone was used to place the call. Evans alluded to that other people could have been using Johnson's phone.
Evans also alluded that investigators had to risk using others' testimony and rely on them to tell the truth.
Browning agreed that police did not find the Bass Pro hat they believed Johnson had been wearing in video at the Concourse Apartments. Evans alluded that other people probably had the same kind of hat, and continued to insert that the hat was popular, though Browning said he did not find the hat to be very popular at the time of Young Dolph's murder.
Browning said he was not aware of police finding video cameras from Bradley Street, where the white Mercedes was found. Browning also said he was not aware of Govan possessing cameras on his property.
Prosecution rests case
Evans ended his questioning. Prosecutor Hagerman rested his case and the jury left to allow the defense and prosecution to talk.
Evans then made a motion for acquittal on behalf of Johnson. The judge denied the motion. Evans requested to talk with Johnson and the court went into recess.
Minutes later, Johnson took the witness stand and said he would not be testifying and knew he had the right to testify. The court then took another break and appeared to wrap up for the night.
The trial is expected to resume Thursday around 9:30 a.m.
Background: What you need to know
The shooting death of Memphis rapper Young Dolph sent shockwaves throughout the Bluff City and nationwide nearly three years ago.
Justin Johnson and Cornelius Smith Jr. were both charged with first-degree murder, among other felonies, in Dolph's death.
The two were originally set to head to trial June 3, 2024, but in May, the D.A.’s office said the defense counsel asked for more time for everyone’s experts to review information, and prosecutors agreed.
The trial was reset previously from March 11 to June 3, 2024. Judge Jennifer J. Mitchell took over the case after the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Judge Lee Coffee to recuse himself from the Young Dolph case.
Hernandez Govan, who prosecutors said ordered the hit on Young Dolph, had a scheduled court date set for Monday, Sept. 30.
This all comes after a Shelby County Judge has granted a motion for a change of venue for the trial in February. That meant an outside jury is being brought in to Shelby County to hear the case, which received heavy media attention here.
Prosecutor Paul Hagerman said the change of venue would not pose an obstacle for prosecutors.
Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Thornton Jr., was fatally shot at Makeda's Cookies on Airways Boulevard on Nov. 17, 2021. Police said at the time two men got out of a stolen Mercedes-Benz and fired shots into Makeda’s Homemade Cookies, where Young Dolph was making a purchase. Police released photos taken from surveillance video that captured the shooting, which they said led to the arrests.
Another suspect, Jermarcus Johnson, pled guilty to three counts of accessory after the fact in October 2023, and he faces six to 12 years in jail.
If convicted, the suspects could face life in prison without parole, which, according to attorney Leslie Ballin, is now 51 years in the state of Tennessee.