Customer Indicted in Restaurant Slaying

July 8, 2022 – A Memphis man was indicted Thursday in the fatal shooting last year of another customer at a Millington restaurant where they had been involved in an altercation earlier in the evening, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury indicted Juston McKnight, 30, on a count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He is being held on $1 million bond.

The incident began around 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, 2021, at Margaritas on U.S. Highway 51 in Millington when McKnight began arguing with waiters about his bill. As McKnight got louder and went into the restaurant’s kitchen area, another customer, 55-year-old Timothy Carver of Munford, intervened and removed McKnight from the restaurant.

Carver and several members of his party then went out to the patio to relax, but about 30 minutes later McKnight returned with a handgun and fired numerous shots at Carver and fled on foot.

Carver was struck multiple times in the chest and in his left leg, and was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived a short time later.

When he was arrested the following day, McKnight told officers, “If he had not pushed and hit me, I would not have killed him.”

The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Regan Murphy of the District Attorney’s Vertical Prosecution Team 3 which prosecutes cases in General Sessions Division 11 and in Criminal Court Division 3.