2nd Man Pleads in Parkway Village Homicide

Dec. 7, 2021 – A 24-year-old man pled guilty Tuesday for his role in the attempted aggravated robbery and shooting death of a man whose body was found at a Parkway Village intersection in 2016, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

    Derrick Gardner of Indianola, Miss., pled guilty in Criminal Court to second-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

   Last week co-defendant Jonathan L. Smith, 27, of Olive Branch, Miss., pled guilty to the same charges and also was sentenced to 30 years.

   Two others charged in the case are awaiting trial.

   Investigators said Gardner was in a pickup truck with the others when they approached Bertram Thompson around 2:45 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2016, near Outland Road and Cromwell Avenue.

   A short time later passing motorists found Thompson face down in the intersection with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

    Surveillance video showed the suspects in a red pickup truck that was later found burned in a field in Robinsonville, Miss. The truck belonged to a relative of Smith’s.

    The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Jimmy Thomas and Will Cranford.