One of the two men charged with gunning down celebrated rapper Young Dolph at a Memphis bakery three years ago was convicted on all counts Thursday. After about four hours of deliberation, jurors found Justin Johnson, 26, guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
“As the thirteenth juror, I affirm this verdict. As to the first-degree murder, I sentence you to life in prison,” Shelby County Judge Jennifer Mitchell said as Johnson sat quietly during the proceeding streamed live by Law & Crime. The judge said she planned to sentence Johnson for the other two counts on November 1.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Young Dolph‘s fiancée Mia Jaye, the mother of his two children, said the verdict “brings relief and restores my confidence in the justice system.” She thanked law enforcement, prosecutors and “everyone involved for their diligent work” in securing the conviction. “We are also grateful to the public for standing with us and advocating for accountability throughout this process,” Jaye said. “The past three years, marked by the loss of Adolph and the events leading to the trial, have been incredibly frustrating. My faith has been tested, but Adolph’s tragic execution has only strengthened my resolve to fight – not only for him but for all Black men. This is just the beginning of our journey toward achieving full justice for Adolph, and we will patiently support the unfolding of that process.”
During Johnson’s four-day trial, jurors heard that the aspiring rapper who called himself Straight Drop murdered Young Dolph, born Adolph Thornton Jr., on November 17, 2021, in a brazen daylight ambush caught on video. According to prosecutors, Johnson carried out the slaying to collect part of an alleged $100,000 bounty purportedly offered by Anthony “Big Jook” Mims, the brother of Thornton’s longtime music rival Yo Gotti.
Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Paul Hagerman revealed Mims’ alleged connection to the deadly shooting in his bombshell opening statement Monday. Confirming the alleged motive for the first time, Hagerman said Mims – who died in a shooting outside a Memphis restaurant in January – considered Thornton an enemy after Thornton rejected multiple offers to join Yo Gotti’s Memphis label, Collective Music Group (CMG). (A rep for Yo Gotti did not immediately reply to a request for comment.)
In his final words to the jury Thursday, Hagerman said Johnson was “caught before, caught during and then caught after” Thornton’s murder thanks to a wealth of surveillance videos, cell phone records and testimony from his alleged accomplice, Cornelius Smith. (When Smith testified Monday, he said Johnson was in on the alleged contract “hit” and was by his side when they started firing at Thornton at Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in South Memphis.)
Hagerman argued Thursday that even without Smith’s testimony, the state had enough to convict Johnson. He said Johnson was captured on video leaving a building the day of the murder wearing the “exact same outfit” as one of the shooters. He said Johnson also tried to delete his call log from that day, but investigators found evidence he had a FaceTime call with Big Jook “right after the murder.”
“Caught before, during and after. That’s called being caught all the times,” Hagerman argued. “Dolph has been killed, and we literally see him at the elevator with his suitcases. …He’s caught on video all the times.” The prosecutor said it was “too real” to watch Thornton die “on the floor of a neighborhood cookie store,” and that Thornton’s children, fiancée, and other family members deserve justice. “Cornelius Smith and Justin Johnson killed Adolph Thornton Jr. on November 17th. We watched it happen,” Hagerman said. “He’s guilty of the murder because we watched it on the video.”
In his dueling closing argument, Johnson’s defense attorney, Luke Evans, urged jurors to not trust Smith. He suggested Smith thought he was getting out of jail when he first confessed and implicated Johnson and that he’s still trying to get a better deal for himself. The lawyer also claimed the distinctive Bass Pro baseball hat spotted on one of the shooters in the bakery surveillance video was not the same hat Johnson was wearing that day. He said Bass Pro hats were a “fad” at the time, worn by musicians including singer Gwen Stefani. “Similar doesn’t mean the same,” he argued.
Evans also urged the jury to focus on the lack of physical evidence found in the Mercedes. He said Smith’s fingerprints were recovered from the vehicle but not Johnson’s. “It’s never justice to wrongfully convict someone,” Evans said. “[Johnson] didn’t kill Adolph Thornton Jr. He didn’t conspire to kill Adolph Thornton Jr., and he wasn’t the man holding the pistol in the Makeda video.”
Hagerman and his co-prosecutor, Irris Williams, each presented part of the state’s closing argument Thursday, focusing on the physical evidence and testimony presented during the trial without rehashing the alleged history between Thornton and CMG presented in Hagerman’s opening statement.
“They wanted Dolph under their label, but he turned down millions,” Hagerman said Monday, calling Big Jook the “number two” person at CMG. He said CMG wasn’t happy with the rejection and suggested the label “directed” several “highly publicized incidents of violence” against Thornton as Dolph responded in his music. Hagerman named “100 Shots” as one of the so-called “diss tracks” that fanned the feud. The platinum-selling track was released just two months after Thornton’s armored SUV was struck by a hail of gunfire in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thornton miraculously survived. “How the fuck you miss a whole hundred shots?” he asks in the song.
“Dolph was well aware – well aware – of the threats and the violence from CMG that were constantly hanging over him and his people,” Hagerman said in his opening. He showed jurors the harrowing surveillance videos from Makeda’s, saying Johnson and Smith had been hand-picked by another man charged in the case, Hernandez Govan, to carry out the “hit.” He said Govan regularly sold drugs to Smith and knew Johnson as an aspiring local rapper he hoped to bring to CMG for some type of finder’s fee or cut of a future contract.
In his startling confession on Monday, Smith, 34, testified that “Big Jook had a hit on Dolph’s head” and that Govan solicited him and Johnson to carry out the slaying for the payday. He described driving around South Memphis in a stolen white Mercedes with Johnson at the wheel the day of the shooting. He said they expected to get $40,000 each from the hit and acted immediately when they spotted Thornton driving his distinctive Corvette and pulling up to Makeda’s. He said they quickly turned around, parked their vehicle, jumped out and opened fire. Asked what it felt like to ambush and kill Thornton, Smith said his only concern was getting paid.
“I wasn’t feeling nothing at the time. I’m not gonna even lie. I wasn’t feeling nothing at the time. I was just, you know, trying to get some money,” Smith testified. “I was aiming for Dolph. I shot through the glass. I wasn’t close up on him. I shot through the glass. I saw him standing by the window. I just got out and started shooting.”
Smith also has been charged with Thornton’s murder but was severed from Johnson’s trial. He told Hagerman his “conscience” led him to confess. Govan, 45, has pleaded not guilty to both murder and murder conspiracy and did not testify at the trial. A fourth man charged in the case, Johnson’s half-brother, Jermarcus Johnson, testified this week and implicated Johnson as well. Jemarcus pleaded guilty last year to three counts of being an accessory after the fact. Prosecutors say Jermarcus accepted a car and cellphone from Justin after the murder to help him escape Memphis amid a manhunt.
Thornton was born in Chicago in 1985 but largely grew up in Memphis, his Southern rearing informing his indelible flow and a vibe that fans and peers alike embraced. He released a series of mixtapes that impressed established rap stars including Gucci Mane and Young Thug. Following his breakthrough 2015 appearance on O.T. Genesis’ hit “Cut It,” Young Dolph dropped his debut album, King of Memphis, and built his Paper Route Empire (PRE) label into a market force with other successful artists including Key Glock.
