MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Southaven man will spend life behind bars after pleading guilty to a 2016 murder in Memphis and several incidents at the Shelby County Jail.
The Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office said 30-year-old Drew Johnson pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and two counts of arson in a series of unrelated incidents.
Guilty plea in 2016 murder
The D.A. said Johnson pleaded guilty to the 2016 murder of 25-year-old Calvin Holloway Jr. of Southaven.
Holloway had been reported missing on April 23, 2016, after a friend saw a Facebook post that Holloway had planned to meet with a stranded friend in southwest Memphis.
Investigators said four days later, Holloway’s body was found in a field in the 5100 block of Crossfield Road in Westhaven. He had been stabbed more than two dozen times.
More on the Holloway case
A woman, Rebecca Allison, was arrested not long after Holloway’s body was found. She was charged with accessory after the fact. According to the police affidavit, she told Memphis police she was in Holloway’s car after his death and wiped evidence off the vehicle. According to the jail system, that case is still pending. She is due in court in February 2022.
And in a bizarre twist, Southaven Police said in January 2016, remains of another man, Lawrence Houston Sr., were found at a home where Holloway lived in the months before his murder.
Crimes at the Shelby County Jail
After being arrested and placed at the Shelby County Jail, Drew Johnson got into more trouble.
The D.A. said Johnson pleaded guilty to setting separate fires at the Shelby County Jail on May 14, 2019, and then again ten days later.
Johnson also pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder in a December 21, 2021 attack at the jail. Investigators said Johnson repeatedly hit another prisoner in the head.
The sentence and another case pending
Johnson was sentenced to life without parole for the murder, and 15 years in prison for each of the other crimes, all to run concurrently.
Drew Johnson also has a murder case pending in Rankin County, Mississippi.
