<\/p>\n
The Tennessee man who previously admitted<\/a> to shooting Young Dolph pleaded guilty Friday to charges stemming from the rapper\u2019s 2021 death<\/a>, bringing the murder case to its conclusion.<\/p>\n Cornelius Smith Jr. pleaded guilty<\/a> to second-degree murder in a plea deal with Memphis prosecutors, nearly two years after Smith admitted on the witness stand that he and co-defendant Justin Johnson shot Young Dolph during a daytime ambush at a Memphis bakery; Smith served as the main witness at the trial of Johnson<\/a>, who was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n As part of the plea deal, Smith was sentenced to 20 years in prison; Smith previously faced charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, but those charges were dropped with the plea deal.<\/p>\n Smith also testified at the trial of Hernandez Govan, the alleged mastermind<\/a> of the Young Dolph shooting; Govan was acquitted<\/a> of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder following a trial in August 2025.<\/p>\n One other person allegedly involved in the shooting, Justin Johnson\u2019s brother Jemarcus Johnson, previously pleaded guilty<\/a> to three counts of accessory after the fact and sentenced to six years of diversion and community service. With Smith\u2019s plea deal, the case against all four people charged in Young Dolph\u2019s murder has come to a close.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung Dolph was a beloved member of this community, his death a tragedy, his murder an outrage,\u201d District Attorney General Steve Mulroy said in a statement<\/a> Friday. \u201cWe\u2019re glad to finally have this last part of the case resolved. The sentence properly reflects the gravity of the offense while giving due consideration to the cooperation this defendant provided. We hope this resolution can give Dolph\u2019s family some sense of closure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSmith cooperated in the prosecution and testified that he and Justin Johnson killed Dolph as part of a planned gang-related hit,\u201d Deputy DA Paul Hagerman said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cJohnson was convicted as charged of all charges; his appeal has been heard and denied, and he is now serving a sentence in excess of life imprisonment. Today, Smith received a 20-year sentence to be served without any chance of early release and without any parole. Smith\u2019s participation in this crime is inexcusable, but Smith owned up to his crime, told the truth in court despite fear of retribution and threats, and has now accepted responsibility and received this long prison sentence. His cooperation was essential to the State\u2019s case, and this was taken into consideration in this resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n Hagerman added, \u201cAs a final note, Dolph was here in Memphis because it was his home, but he was also here to do what had become a tradition for him \u2014 a turkey giveaway for his neighborhood. Dolph believed in this place, he believed in his people, and he loved his family. His story is, and has always been, bigger than his death.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Tennessee man who previously admitted to shooting Young Dolph pleaded guilty Friday to charges stemming from the rapper\u2019s 2021 death, bringing the murder case to its conclusion. Cornelius Smith Jr. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea deal with Memphis prosecutors, nearly two years after Smith admitted on the witness stand that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2419911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[474048,351759,351758],"class_list":["post-2419910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-jemarcus-johnson","tag-justin-johnson","tag-young-dolph"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Young-Dolph-Shooter-Pleads-Guilty-Concluding-Rappers-Murder-Case.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2419910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2419912,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419910\/revisions\/2419912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2419911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2419910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2419910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2419910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}