Man Pleads in 2016 Parkway Village Homicide

Dec. 3, 2021 – A Mississippi man pled guilty Friday in the 2016 killing of a 29-year-old man whose body was found face down at an intersection in the Parkway Village area of southeast Memphis, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

   Criminal Court defendant Jonathan L. Smith, 27, of Olive Branch, entered guilty pleas to second-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

   Investigators said Smith was one of several men in a pickup truck who approached Bertram Thompson around 2:45 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2016, near Outland Road and Cromwell Avenue.

   A short time later passing motorists found Thompson face down in the intersection with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

    Surveillance video showed the suspects in a red pickup truck that was later found burned in a field in Robinsonville, Miss. The truck belonged to a relative of Smith’s.

   Three codefendants charged in the homicide are scheduled to be in court next week.

   The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Jimmy Thomas and Will Cranford.