Whitehaven Man Indicted in Homicide Of Woman Found Shot Under His Truck

July 21, 2022 – A Whitehaven man has been indicted in the January death of a woman whose body was found underneath his unoccupied pickup truck parked at a strip mall on Winchester Road near South Mendenhall, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury indicted 34-year-old Christian Pitts on counts of first-degree murder and convicted felon in possession of a handgun. He is being held in the Shelby County Jail on $200,000 bond.

The incident occurred around 3 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2022, in the 5100 block of Winchester Road where an area resident reported hearing gunshots. Police found the body of Vonnie Payne, 34, partially under a white pickup truck owned by Pitts. Payne was shot more than a dozen times.

A witness described the shooter and told police which way he was walking, leading to the arrest of Pitts less than a mile away.

Pitts said he was sleeping in his truck when he heard a noise. Pitts said he got out and struggled with a woman who was underneath his truck, and that he then “blacked out.”

The case is being handled by Chief Prosecutor Theresa McCusker of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 1 which prosecutes cases in General Sessions Division 7 and in Criminal Court Division 1.