Victim’s Best Friend Indicted In Reckless Homicide Case

Feb. 25, 2022 – A South Memphis man has been indicted in the death of his best friend last year after he initially told others that the friend accidentally shot himself, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury Thursday indicted Zavonne Bell, 20, on a count of reckless homicide. He is free on $75,000 bond.

The incident occurred on Jan. 27, 2021, at a residence in the 100 block of East McKellar Ave. in South Memphis where Bell, DeWayne Butler and another man were visiting in the living room.

Bell had been holding a pistol which he set down a table, and moments later Butler picked it up to examine it. Bell told the victim’s father that the gun then accidentally discharged as his son was handling it, striking him in the side of the head and killing him.

An autopsy the next day, however, showed no impressions or burns on the skin that would indicate a close contact wound.

On March 13, 2021, Bell told Butler’s father that he accidentally fired the shot that killed his son, who was 19. When the father notified police, Bell then told them he had only one bullet in the pistol and that he thought Butler had racked the slide and cleared the chamber.

Bell said moments later he picked the weapon up off the sofa and, while looking down at his cellphone, pointed it toward Butler and pulled the trigger, thinking the gun was empty. Butler was pronounced dead at the scene.

The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Chris Whitten of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 2 which prosecutes cases in General Sessions Division 9 (Mental Health Court) and in Criminal Court Division 2.