MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On Sunday, 25-year-old Keedrin Coppage was convicted by a criminal court jury for stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death, whose body was found on a North Memphis street corner in 2020, according to the Shelby County District Attorney's Office.
The jury deliberated for about an hour before Coppage was convicted of both first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, according to the Shelby County District Attorney's Office. The District Attorney's Office released a press release stating that Coppage was automatically sentenced to life in prison for murder and will also be sentenced later for the tampering conviction.
Even before Jan. 2 2020, when witnesses saw Coppage place a body on the curb at Jackson Avenue and Maple Drive, Coppage was arrested several times in December of that year, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Coppage made threatening phone calls, assaulted the victim and kidnapped her outside of 201 Poplar where she was going to seek an Order of Protection, according to the District Attorney's Office.
The victim had also reported her 2019 Nissan Sentra as stolen and named Coppage as the suspect of the theft, according to an affidavit from a Criminal Court Judge of Shelby County.
The affidavit states that this all occurred before officers responded to a call about an unresponsive woman laying on the sidewalk in early January 2020. She was pronounced dead by Memphis Fire Department personnel and the Shelby County Medical Examiner's Office determined the victim's death to be a criminal homicide by stabbing, according to the affidavit.
The Shelby County District Attorney's Office said that a medical examiner reported the victim had been stabbed 38 times.
An officer on the scene recognized the victim from all the past domestic incidents involving Coppage, according to the affidavit.
Coppage was on bond with conditions for Aggravated Stalking and had active warrants for Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Assault and Aggravated Stalking, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also sates that investigators enlisted U.S. marshals for help in finding and apprehending Coppage for these warrants.
On Jan. 3 2020, Coppage was apprehended by these marshals and he admitted that he was with the victim before and after her death, according to the affidavit.
He also admitted to placing her dead body in the trunk of the car that belonged to her, attempting to clean up the blood inside of the car, changing out of the clothing he was wearing at the time of her death, transporting the victim to the intersection of Jackson and Maple, removing the body from the trunk and placing her on the sidewalk, according to the affidavit.
Police obtained neighborhood watch camera footage that confirmed what witnesses had told them about these events, according to the Shelby County District Attorney's Office.
Coppage and the 18-year-old victim dated for about a year starting in the fall of 2018, but when she tried to end the relationship, he became angry and aggressive, according to the District Attorney's Office.
