Ex-Boyfriend Admits Fatally Stabbing Woman

March 22, 2022 – A 56-year-old man has pled guilty to the 2020 stabbing death of his former girlfriend whose body was found in her Frayser apartment two days later, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Johnny Ferrell pled guilty Monday in Criminal Court to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Investigators said the victim, Shannon Lee Coats, 55, was last seen alive on June 30, 2020, when security cameras showed Ferrell entering her apartment on St. Charles in the evening and leaving several hours later.

Her body was discovered in the apartment by friends two days later. She had been stabbed more than a half dozen times in the neck and chest. Ferrell had a fresh cut on his thumb and also was linked to the crime scene through blood evidence.

The case was handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Justin Prescott and Cavett Ostner of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit which prosecutes cases of domestic assault and homicide committed by intimate partners.