Man Convicted in Home-Invasion Murder

  Dec. 17, 2021 – A 35-year-old man was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder and other felony counts related to a 2014 home-invasion in which the homeowner was shot to death and his girlfriend was wounded, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

    A Criminal Court jury found Thaddeus Money guilty of first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, especially aggravated robbery, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary (acting in concert), and employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony.

    The murder conviction carries a sentence of life in prison. Money will be sentenced on the other offenses in January by Judge Chris Craft.

    Two other men charged in the case are awaiting trial.

   The incident occurred shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2014, at a residence in the 600 block of N. Walnut Bend Road near Trinity Road in Cordova. The victims had just returned home when two gunmen in stocking masks forced their way inside and demanded money.

   Homeowner Jarmelle ‘JoJo’ Jones, 26, tried to disarm one of the intruders, but was shot in the chest. His girlfriend, then 27, was wounded in the leg while she was praying out loud.

   The gunmen took money, a cellphone and the woman’s keys as they ran out of the house and drove away in Jones’s black Dodge Charger. The car was found burning at 4:30 the next morning on Windemere Road in Raleigh.

  Money was developed as a suspect and was taken into custody in 2016.

   Jones was a graduate of the University of Memphis where he was a popular entrepreneur, mentor to young children, party promoter and a manager on the basketball team during its run to the final four championship game.

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

    CSNPU cases involve gang members and violent crime, including homicides, robberies, rapes, and narcotics trafficking.