MEMPHIS, Tenn. — During day two of testimony in the trial of Justin Johnson, charged with the murder of Memphis rapper Young Dolph, a former Memphis Police investigator explained how they arrived at him as a suspect.
Former MPD homicide investigator Terence Dabney worked with the Memphis Police Department for 26 years and is now retired.
The murder scene
Dabney took the stand, describing the scene as he arrived at Makeda’s Cookies on Airways Blvd. on Nov. 17, 2021, after Young Dolph, whose real name is Adolph Thornton Jr., was shot and killed.
“There was a lot of people down there,” Dabney said.
Dabney said he and other officers spoke with witnesses, including Marcus Thornton, Dolph’s brother, as investigators worked to gather details about what happened.
Dabney testified they found several calibers of bullets at the scene, including from a handgun, an assault rifle, and a gun Marcus Thornton had with him. Dabney said that while they had the ability to connect bullets at the scene to guns used to kill Dolph, they were never able to find the murder weapons.
The investigator said it was the clothing of the suspects and a white Mercedes Benz with right side damage seen on surveillance video from the shooting that helped lead them to the suspects.
The stolen Mercedes
Dabney testified about photos from three days after Dolph’s murder of a white Mercedes parked near an abandoned house in Orange Mound. Hernandez Govan, who prosecutors said ordered the hit on Young Dolph, lived on the other side of the street.
The photos showed the white Mercedes – with damage to the right side - parked beneath trees near the vacant house.
Dabney said the car had been taken in a carjacking before the murder, but agreed with the Deputy D.A. Paul Hagerman that Justin Johnson was not a suspect in the carjacking.
Dabney said investigators lifted prints from the Mercedes belonging to Cornelius Smith - who is also charged in the murder and testified against Johnson - and two others. Dabney confirmed they were not able to find blood or DNA from inside the car.
Dabney testified that one of those prints led them to Treon Ingram, who was indicted in a Nov. 12, 2021, carjacking in Covington, Tennessee, in which a white Mercedes was used. A woman, Anita Wilson, was shot and killed in that carjacking.
Dabney said investigators spoke with Ingram, who directed them to check for video of a white Mercedes in a parking garage in the Crosstown area, and at a Valero gas station near Park and Highland the morning of the murder.
Video and photo evidence
Video and photo evidence made up a large part of Dabney’s testimony. Here’s a look at a chronological timeline:
- 7:15 p.m. Nov. 16 – Video from Crosstown’s Concourse Apartments shows a white Ford Expedition in the parking garage, where Hagerman said Justin Johnson lived on the eighth floor. A man from the Expedition is seen walking into the apartment building and taking an elevator to the eighth floor. In the video, the man appears to be wearing the same clothes as one of the suspects from the surveillance video showing Dolph’s murder just hours later.
- 11:13 p.m. Nov. 16 – Video from Crosstown’s Concourse Apartments shows the white Expedition once again returning to the apartments and a man in the same clothing entering the building.
- 2:40 a.m. Nov. 17 - Video from Crosstown’s Concourse Apartments shows the same man in the same clothing leaving the apartment building and heading to the parking garage. A white Expedition is then seen leaving the garage.
- 3:16 a.m. Nov. 17 – Video from a Valero gas station near Park and Highland shows Treon Ingram and one of the other people whose prints had been on the Mercedes – not Smith – appear to make a trade, the white Mercedes with the right side damage for an Infiniti.
- 4:45 a.m. Nov. 17 - Video from Crosstown’s Concourse Apartments shows a white Mercedes with right side damage entering the parking garage of the Concourse Apartments. Video shows a man, wearing the same clothing as the man who had left the Concourse Apartments two hours earlier, entering the building with a little girl. Prosecutors said the girl was Johnson’s daughter.
- 11:51 a.m. Nov. 17 (About 30 minutes before shooting) – Video from Concourse Apartments shows a man in same clothing and a little girl on the eighth floor taking an elevator down and walking to the parking garage, then the white Mercedes leaving.
- 1 p.m. Nov. 17 (About 30 minutes after the shooting) - Video from the Haven Court Apartments the day of the murder, where prosecutors said Johnson’s cousin lived at the complex. Dabney testified the video shows the cousin approaching a white Ford Expedition, which the suspects exit. The video shows one of the suspects walk to a Dodge Charger that arrived at the apartments. A suspect takes a yellow hoodie and two white bags from the Charger, goes back to the apartment and then later gets back into the white Expedition wearing the yellow hoodie. The vehicle drives away. The other suspect leaves in a Chevy Trax. Dabney said investigators were interested in talking to all three people.
- 7:51 p.m. Nov. 17 - Video from Concourse Apartments shows a car arrive in the parking lot outside, then a man in a yellow hoodie enter the building and take the elevator to the eighth floor.
- 8:17 p.m. Nov. 17 - Video from Concourse Apartments shows man in yellow hoodie with a rolling suitcase leave the eighth floor, take the elevator down, then leave in the car that had arrived about 30 minutes prior.
Arresting Johnson and Smith
Dabney testified that they were not able to find Johnson at his apartment, and after a citywide manhunt, he was located and arrested near Indianapolis. Dabney said Johnson’s phone was found with his brother Jermarcus Johnson.
Dabney testified to other photos he said showed Cornelius Smith from the shooting surveillance, and to Smith’s prints that were found on the Mercedes. Dabney said they arrested Smith and recovered his cell phone.
Cross examination
During cross-examination from Johnson’s defense attorney Luke Evans, Dabney confirmed that the bullet and fragments found were never tested for specific caliber and that the murder weapon was not recovered.
Dabney said he wasn't sure if police ever retrieved video from Govan's house facing the property where officers found the white Mercedes. He also did not know if anyone asked Govan if he had cameras facing that direction.
Dabney said he was not sure if investigators found bullet holes on the white Mercedes, and though glass was missing from the window, he did not recall if there was broken glass in the car.
Dabney also confirmed Johnson's fingerprints were not found on the car and there was no DNA evidence or blood found in the car.
Evans asked about the Valero gas station scene and Dabney agreed some things could not be seen because another car was blocking the Mercedes and Infiniti at one point following the “trade.” In particular, Evans pointed out viewers could not see if anyone else got in or out of the cars.
Turning to the Concourse Apartments scene, Dabney agreed he could not see who was driving the white Mercedes or who entered or left the Mercedes, including the person in a black hoodie and gray sweatpants.
However, Dabney said the person, who he believed was Johnson, walked from the same area where the Mercedes was parked. Dabney then agreed the cameras did not show who was in the Mercedes.
Dabney also agreed that video description itself never marked the person at the Concourse Apartments wearing the same underwear as the person at Makeda's Cookies during the murder and that he is only making the connection from what he sees in the video, something he noted during the prosecutor's questioning.
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