Sex Offender Indicted in Murder Case

Sept. 3, 2020 – A 55-year-old repeat violent sex offender was indicted Tuesday on first-degree murder charges stemming from a knife attack on the family of a victim in a pending case against him, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury indicted Kelvin Leray Nelson on two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of especially aggravated burglary.

The attack occurred around 9 p.m. on Feb. 9 this year at the South Memphis home of a teenage girl who was the victim in a pending sexual battery case against Nelson.

Investigators said Nelson stabbed and seriously injured the girl and her mother, and also killed 74-year-old Katrenia Webster who also lived in the home. While attacking the young girl, Nelson repeatedly asked if she was going to drop the case against him.

Nelson was charged and arrested several days later.

The case is being handled by Chief Prosecutor Eric Christensen and Asst. Dist. Atty. Gavin Smith of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit (SVU) which prosecutes all cases of rape, aggravated rape, child sexual abuse, severe physical abuse of child victims, elder abuse, and vulnerable-adult abuse.

The SVU was created in 2010 as an expansion of the multi-agency Child Protection Investigative Team (CIPIT).