Third Shooter Pleads Guilty in Murder Case

June 27, 2022 – The third of three teen homicide defendants has pled guilty to killing one man and wounding another in 2018 after opening fire on them near Shelby Drive and Riverdale Road in southeast Memphis, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Christian Key, now 21, pled guilty Thursday in Criminal Court to second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, and was sentenced 20 years in prison without the possibility for parole.

The incident occurred the night of 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 in southeast Memphis.

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 the defendants turned onto Cognac Cove, they turned around so their vehicle was facing the car that was following them.

At that point, Jalen Bell, 19, his brother 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 on second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony.

Bell pled guilty in March to second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder and was sentenced to 28 years without parole.

The case was handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Stephen Ragland and Jen Morris 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.