Gang Member Convicted in Murders of Pair Found Dead in Cordova Park

July 17, 2022 – A Cordova man was convicted on all counts Friday in the 2018 shooting deaths and robberies of two acquaintances whose bodies were found in the front seat of a car in Fletcher Creek Park, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A Criminal Court jury convicted Juanyai Walls on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of especially aggravated robbery. He automatically received two life sentences for the murders and will be sentenced next month on the robbery convictions.

According to testimony in the week-long trial, Walls and several fellow members of the Piru Bloods gang arranged to meet with the two victims in the early-morning hours of Feb. 3, 2018, with a plan to rob them of two rifles they had for sale.

Hours later, shortly before 10 a.m., visitors at Fletcher Creek Park in Cordova found the victims – Devonte Taylor and Jereme Jones, both 19 – dead in the front seat of a vehicle. Both were killed by multiple gunshots from two different-caliber weapons.

Three co-defendants also were charged in the case, including Kentrell Spight, 22, who pled guilty last month and was sentenced to 35 years in prison without the possibility for parole. Two other defendants are awaiting trial.

The trial this week was handled by Felony Assts. William Cranford and Paige Munn of the District Attorney’s Crime Strategies & Narcotics Prosecution Unit which prosecutes cases involving violent crimes committed by gang members, homicides, robberies, kidnappings, rapes, and narcotics trafficking.