MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Binghampton man pled guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the 2018 shooting death of a man whose body was discovered in a van in an impound lot some seven weeks later, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.
Mardracus West, 22, was sentenced to 21 years in prison without the possibility for parole and to a concurrent sentence of 12 years for attempted especially aggravated robbery.
Investigators said that around 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2017, West and two other men approached a van in an apartment parking lot in the 3000 block of Yale Road and attempted to rob the men seated inside.
After demanding money, West began shooting into the van. A 47-year-old man was struck three times and taken to a hospital in critical condition. Two other men in the van were not injured.
About seven weeks later, on Feb. 7, 2018, the wounded victim went to the police impound lot on Klinke Avenue in Frayser to pick up his van and discovered the body of Bardomiano Perez Hernandez, 33, in the rear under a pile of clothes.
The medical examiner said he died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The van owner notified police and told them he did not know Hernandez had been shot during the robbery attempt in December. Another passenger in the vehicle that night told police he thought Hernandez had run away like he himself had done.
West was developed as a suspect and gave police a statement of admission.
The case was handled by Chief Prosecutor Alanda Dwyer of the District Attorney’s Special Prosecution Unit (CPU) in Criminal Court Division 7. The CPU seeks maximum sentencing for repeat felony offenders.
