Boyfriend Guilty in Murder of Pregnant Woman

March 4, 2022 – A man who shot his pregnant girlfriend 17 times and kept her body in the house for nearly a week was convicted Friday on two counts of first-degree murder, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A Criminal Court jury rejected an insanity defense and held defendant Ricky Anderson II, 30, criminally responsible for the 2018 murders. He will be sentenced to life in prison.

The incident occurred at a residence in the 1900 block of Sparks Ave. in South Memphis where police were called on Jan 30, 2018, to investigate the discovery of a body. Inside they found 26-year-old Karmeshi Pipes on the floor and partially covered by a bedspread.

Investigators said it appeared she had been dead at least for several days. Her family told police they had not heard from her since her baby shower that was held a week earlier. She was nine months pregnant, and her unborn son was to be delivered on Feb. 7.

An autopsy showed that the victim had been shot 17 times by a handgun found at the scene.

The case was handled by Chief Prosecutor Greg Gilbert of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) handles cases of domestic assault and homicide committed by intimate partners and by Asst. Dist. Atty. Julie Cardillo of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 2 which prosecutes cases in General Sessions Div. 9 (Mental Health Court) and in Criminal Court Division 2.

The DVU works closely with the Shelby County Family Safety Center and other victim-service providers, such as Kindred Place and the YWCA, to provide services and assistance to victims of domestic violence.