How Memphis Police Linked Justin Johnson to Young Dolph's Murder

MEMPHIS, Tennessee – On the second day of testimony in the trial of Justin Johnson, who is accused of murdering Memphis rapper Young Dolph, a former Memphis police investigator explained how they came to identify him as a suspect.

Former MPD homicide detective Terence Dabney worked for the Memphis Police Department for 26 years and is now retired.

Dabney described on the witness stand the scene when he arrived at Makeda's Cookies on Airways Blvd. on November 17, 2021, after Young Dolph, whose real name is Adolph Thornton Jr., was shot.

“There were a lot of people down there,” Dabney said.

Dabney said he and other officials spoke with witnesses, including Marcus Thornton, Dolph's brother, as investigators tried to gather details about the incident.

Dabney testified that they found bullets of various calibers at the crime scene, including from a pistol, an assault rifle, and a gun that Marcus Thornton had on him. Dabney said that while they were able to link the bullets at the crime scene to the guns used to kill Dolph, they were never able to find the murder weapons.

The investigator said the suspects' clothing and a white Mercedes Benz with damage to the right side seen on surveillance video of the shooting helped them locate the suspects.

Dabney testified about photographs taken three days after Dolph's murder of a white Mercedes parked near an abandoned house in Orange Mound. Hernandez Govan, who prosecutors said ordered Young Dolph's murder, lived across the street.

In the photos, the white Mercedes – with damage on the right side – was parked under trees near the empty house.

Dabney said the car was stolen in a carjacking before the murder, but agreed with Assistant District Attorney Paul Hagerman that Justin Johnson was not a suspect in that carjacking.

Dabney said investigators took fingerprints from the Mercedes of Cornelius Smith — who is also accused of murder and testified against Johnson — and two other people. Dabney confirmed they found no blood or DNA in the car.

Dabney testified that one of those fingerprints led her to Treon Ingram, who was charged with a November 12, 2021, carjacking in Covington, Tennessee, involving a white Mercedes. During that carjacking, a woman, Anita Wilson, was shot and killed.

Dabney said investigators spoke with Ingram, who instructed them to look for videos of a white Mercedes in a parking garage in the Crosstown neighborhood and at a Valero gas station near Park and Highland on the morning of the murder.

Video and photographic evidence made up a large part of Dabney's testimony. Here's a look at a chronological timeline:

• 19:15, November 16 – Video from the Concourse Apartments in Crosstown shows a white Ford Expedition in the parking garage where Justin Johnson lived on the eighth floor, Hagerman said. A man from the Expedition can be seen entering the apartment building and taking the elevator to the eighth floor. In the video, the man appears to be wearing the same clothing as one of the suspects in the surveillance video showing Dolph's murder just hours later.
• November 16, 23:13 – Video from Crosstown's Concourse Apartments again shows the white expedition returning to the apartments and a man in the same clothing entering the building.
• 2:40 am, November 17 – Video from the Concourse Apartments in Crosstown shows the same man wearing the same clothing leaving the apartment building and walking to the parking garage. A white Expedition is then seen exiting the parking garage.
• November 17, 3:16 am – Video from a Valero gas station near Park and Highland shows Treon Ingram and one of the other people – not Smith – apparently trading the white Mercedes with the right-side damage for an Infiniti.
• November 17, 4:45 am – Video from the Concourse Apartments in Crosstown shows a white Mercedes with damage to the right side entering the Concourse Apartments parking garage. The video shows a man wearing the same clothing as the man who left the Concourse Apartments two hours earlier entering the building with a little girl. Prosecutors said the girl is Johnson's daughter.
• November 17, 11:51 a.m. (about 30 minutes before filming begins) – Video from Concourse Apartments shows a man in matching clothing and a little girl on the eighth floor taking the elevator down and walking to the parking garage, then the white Mercedes drives away.
• 1:00 p.m., November 17 (about 30 minutes after the shooting) – Video from the Haven Court Apartments from the day of the murder, where prosecutors say Johnson's cousin lived in the complex. Dabney testified the video shows the cousin approaching a white Ford Expedition from which the suspects exit. The video shows one of the suspects walking to a Dodge Charger that pulled up to the apartments. One suspect takes a yellow hoodie and two white bags from the Charger, walks back into the apartment, and later gets back into the white Expedition with the yellow hoodie. The vehicle drives away. The other suspect drives away in a Chevy Trax. Dabney said investigators are interested in speaking with all three people.
• 19:51, November 17 – Video from the Concourse Apartments shows a car pulling into the parking lot in front of the door, then a man in a yellow hoodie entering the building and taking the elevator to the eighth floor.
• November 17, 20:17 – Video from the Concourse Apartments shows a man in a yellow hoodie with a rolling suitcase leaving the eighth floor, taking the elevator down, and then driving away in the car that had arrived about 30 minutes earlier.

Dabney testified that they could not find Johnson at his apartment. After a citywide manhunt, he was found near Indianapolis and arrested. Dabney said Johnson's phone was found with his brother, Jermarcus Johnson.

Dabney testified about additional photos he said showed Cornelius Smith from the security camera and about Smith's fingerprints being found on the Mercedes. Dabney said they arrested Smith and seized his cell phone.

This story will be updated once cross-examination of Dabney is complete.

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