MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As testimony resumed for day three of the trial for the man charged in the murder of Memphis rapper Young Dolph, prosecutors focused on what they said was a “mistake” from day two’s evidence.
At issue: a time stamp on the video evidence that prosecutors said connected Justin Johnson to the murder of Adolph Thornton Jr.
According to Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman, one of the videos shown in court Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, from Crosstown Concourse showing a suspect leaving the building was presented with the wrong time. Hagerman called it a "mistake," and blamed the loss of time stamps on the video shown in court due to editing the video into “reels” to show all the angles for the jury. Instead of time stamps, the video on Tuesday had a slate before it with an incorrect time marked, according to Hagerman.
In particular, Hagerman focused on a video of a suspect leaving Crosstown Concourse not long before the murder of Dolph at Makeda’s Cookies. The video was shown during testimony from former MPD homicide investigator Terence Dabney.
The video at issue
The video from Crosstown Concourse Apartments showed a man, in clothing matching that of one of the shooters, and a little girl. The two were on the eighth floor of the apartment building, taking an elevator down and then walking to the parking garage. The video then showed a white Mercedes leaving, which Hagerman said matched the Mercedes used in the shooting. Prosecutors said the man in the video is the man on trial, Justin Johnson, who lived on the eighth floor at the Crosstown Concourse Apartments, with his daughter.
On the video shown in court Tuesday, the slate was marked as 11:51 a.m., about 30 minutes before the shooting at Makeda's at 12:24 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2021.
During testimony Wednesday, Hagerman brought up another witness - MPD homicide investigator Lt. Ma’Hajj Abdul-BaaQee, who also worked the case and dealt with collection of the video.
Under questioning, the investigator corrected the time for this video and said the correct time stamp should be 10:49 a.m. Nov. 17, which is about an hour and a half before Dolph was shot.
Hagerman called the time stamp shown previously on Tuesday a "mistake" due to the editing.
On cross examination, defense attorney Luke Evans asked Abdul-BaaQee about how investigators retrieved the videos. Abdul-BaaQee testified they went to Crosstown Concourse on Nov. 24 and Nov. 26, 2021, to review video. He said on Nov. 24 they reviewed the video and “bookmarked” the portions they wanted to download, but a technician had to come in to retrieve the video for download, which was done on Nov. 24.
When Evans asked whether it was “not uncommon” for time stamps to be inaccurate, Abdul-BaaQee agreed. When asked how they verified the time stamp accuracy, Abdul-BaaQee said investigators worked with technician, reviewed the live view at the time they were there to check for accuracy, and it was correct. Evans noted they would not have been able to see the live view itself from when the Nov. 16 and 17 videos were originally recorded to know whether the time stamps were accurate at that time.
So why is this important?
It comes down to the time it takes to get from Crosstown Concourse in Midtown Memphis to Makeda’s Cookies on Airways Blvd.
During direct from Hagerman, MPD investigator Terence Dabney testified the distance from the apartments to Makeda's is about a 10-minute drive. But under cross-examination, Dabney agreed that distance can vary depending on the route or traffic and could take up to 20 minutes.
The “mistake” Hagerman said was made on the video shown Tuesday would have left about 30 minutes between the time the suspect on the Crosstown Concourse video left until the shooting at Makeda’s Cookies. Under the correction with Wednesday’s testimony, the gap between the man leaving the apartments and the shooting extends to about 1.5 hours.
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