MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Police said an arrest has finally been made in a murder on Thanksgiving Day four years ago.
The Shelby County District Attorney General's Office said 19-year-old Dallas Perkins, who is serving time for other crimes, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree murder in perpetration of theft, and theft of property in the death of Robert Wong on November 23, 2017.
Investigators said Perkins was 15 at the time of the murder. Because of his age at the time of the crime, the initial proceedings will be held in Juvenile Court.
Police said 68-year-old Robert Wong was killed November 23, 2017, sometime between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. at his home in the 4100 block of Cochese. Investigators say Wong’s family had left for about two hours to get brunch.
Wong, a veteran who was being treated for cancer, was found unresponsive near the living room, shot in the shoulder. Investigators said the side doors were unlocked, keys were missing, and the family Honda Odyssey van was gone.
Police said they found items from the missing 2005 minivan the next day, Friday, Nov. 24, in the Fox Hollow Town homes. The minivan was found abandoned later that day in the 5500 block of Crepe Myrtle, with considerable damage.
The Shelby County D.A. said in 2019, Perkins pleaded guilty in the holdup of a pizza delivery driver on October 28, 2018, in the 6300 block of Hunters Place in Cordova. They said Perkins and two other men took the driver’s white Dodge Charger, $20, and two pizzas.
The day after that, investigators said a Cordova woman reported her home was broken into, and the suspects were in a white Dodge Charger. Perkins was arrested after police spotted him and another teen getting into the vehicle in a Parkway Village neighborhood.
Perkins was sentenced to more than seven years in those cases, which he is serving at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
