Man Convicted in Robbery, Homicide

Aug. 22, 2022 – A 26-year-old man was convicted Friday in a 2017 robbery and shooting at a South Memphis home where one man was killed and his father was critically injured, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

During the trial, the Criminal Court jury heard the recorded testimony of a witness who survived the attack, but later died from Covid.

Defendant Shundarius Turner, 26, was convicted on felony counts of especially aggravated robbery, reckless homicide, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. He will be sentenced later.

A codefendant, Narquese White, also 26, was acquitted on all counts.

The incident occurred on July 18, 2017, when two men went to a residence in the 1400 block of Wilson St. near South Parkway East to rob Dontavious Craigen of marijuana and cash.

Shots were fired and Craigen, 21, was struck multiple times. He collapsed in the driveway where he was pronounced dead a short time later. When Craigen’s 43-year-old father tried to intervene, he too was shot multiple times, including in both hands, his arm and his leg.

The son’s girlfriend and two children also were in the house, but were not injured. She died later from Covid, but her recorded account of the shooting was played during the trial.

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