Gang Member Convicted in Random Killing

Dec. 2, 2021 – A 21-year-old man was convicted Wednesday in the unprovoked shooting death of a pedestrian who was crossing Mt. Moriah at Quince Road in the summer of 2019, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

    A Criminal Court jury convicted Demarcus Z. Wooten of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony.

    The murder case carries an automatic sentence of life in prison. Wooten will be sentenced on the other offenses in February by Judge W. Mark Ward.

    According to testimony, Wooten was in the back rear seat of a car with several other people in the early-morning hours of June 12, 2019, when he shot at another motorist at Mt. Moriah and Willow Road.

    The shot hit the car’s rear driver’s side door and shattered the window. The driver was not injured.

    Minutes later, at around 2:30 a.m., the northbound car in which Wooten was riding stopped for a red light on Mt. Moriah at Quince. Witnesses said that for no apparent reason Wooten shot 49-year-old Willie C. Gandy in the back as he crossed the street in the crosswalk in front of the car.

    Witnesses said the car’s driver continued on Mt. Moriah, but that Wooten told the driver to make a U-turn and that as they passed the shooting scene Wooten laughed and said “Look at his body.”

     When a witness texted him later asking about the shooting, Wooten, a gang member whose nickname is Hot Head, replied “He dead” in a return text with a smiling emoji.

   The trial was handled by Chief Prosecutor Paul Hagerman and Asst. Dist. Atty. Doug Carriker of the District Attorney’s Crime Strategies & Narcotics Prosecution Unit (CSNPU) that prosecutes cases in General Sessions Division 8 (Drug Court) and in Criminal Court Division 6.

   The unit handles cases involving gang members and violent crimes, including homicides, aggravated robberies, kidnappings, rapes and narcotics trafficking.