Second Shooter Pleads Guilty in Murder Case

March 15, 2022 – A 23-year-old man pled guilty Monday to killing one man and wounding another in 2018 after opening fire on another car near Shelby Drive and Riverdale Road in southeast Memphis, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Jaelen Bell, one of three defendants in the case, pled guilty to second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder as jury selection was scheduled to begin in his trial. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison without the possibility for parole.

The incident occurred on March 28, 2018, when victims Christopher Smith and his cousin, both 23, began looking for the cousin’s vehicle that had just been stolen from a service station. They became suspicious when a car with the three defendants drove slowly by with the occupants staring at them.

Convinced the three were somehow involved in the auto theft, Smith and his cousin began following the vehicle as it headed north on Riverdale. When defendants turned onto Cognac Cove, they turned around so their vehicle was facing the car that was following them.

At that point, Bell, his brother Christian Key, 17, and Demerrick Porter, 18, jumped out and began shooting, killing Smith with two shots to the head and wounding his cousin in the leg.

The three defendants soon were developed as suspects, and all admitted firing at the victims. Porter was convicted in trial last year and is serving a 38-year prison sentence. Key, now 21, is scheduled for trial this summer.

The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Stephen Ragland of the District Attorney’s Crime Strategies and Narcotics Prosecution Unit which prosecutes cases involving gang members and violent crimes, including homicides, aggravated robberies, kidnappings, rapes, attempted murders, and narcotics trafficking.