MEMPHIS, Tenn. — UPDATE 12/7/2021 - A second man has pleaded guilty for his role in a deadly robbery and shooting in 2016 in Parkway Village.
The Shelby County District Attorney General's Office said 24-year-old Derrick Gardner of Indianola, Mississippi, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Co-defendant Jonathan L. Smith of Olive Branch pleaded guilty to the same charges last week and also was sentenced to 30 years.
Two others are awaiting trial.
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12/3/2021 - An Olive Branch man pleaded guilty Friday in the 2016 killing of a man found dead in a Parkway Village intersection.
The Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office said 27-year-old Jonathan L. Smith of Olive Branch pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery in the death of 29-year-old Bertram Thompson. Smith was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Investigators said Thompson was found face down in the intersection of Outland Road and Cromwell Avenue in the early morning hours of February 4, 2016. He was dead at the scene.
Prosecutors said Smith was one of several men in a red pickup truck who had approached Thompson around 2:45 p.m., a short time before he was found dead. They said surveillance video showed the suspects in the truck which was later found burned in a Robinsonville, Mississippi, field. They said the truck belonged to Smith’s relative.
Three co-defendants in the case are scheduled to be in court next week.
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6/9/2017 - Three Mississippi men and a Memphis man have been indicted on murder and attempted robbery charges in last year’s killing of a Parkway Village man.
The body of 29-year-old Bertram Thompson was found around 2:45 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2016 on Outland Road near Cromwell Street. He died of multiple gunshot wounds. He was a graduate of Bishop Byrne High School and attended Arkansas State University.
Investigators later arrested 33-year-old Jonathan Smith of Olive Branch, 23-year-old D’Quevion Brown of Memphis, 20-year-old Marchello Gardner of Shaw, Miss., and 20-year-old Derrick Gardner of Indianola, Miss.
All are charged with premeditated first-degree murder, murder in the perpetration of a robbery and aggravated robbery. They’re all being held without bond.
