
Justin Johnson, the man convicted of the murder of Memphis rapper Young Dolph, has had his request for a new trial denied by a Shelby County judge. The denial was issued today, maintaining Johnson's life sentence plus an additional 50 years for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, as reported by Action News 5.
According to FOX13 Memphis, Johnson's attorney had previously filed for a new trial, challenging the sufficiency of evidence presented during the September trial. Judge Jennifer Mitchell, despite having the opportunity to appeal the decision, denied the motion based on the apparel match in surveillance footage, cell phone tracking on the day of the murder, and testimonies regarding Johnson's post-crime movements.
In their testimony, Johnson's half-brother and Cornelius Smith, a co-conspirator in the murder who testified against Johnson, helped the prosecution build a case that also included Johnson's phone data linking him to the crime, as highlighted by Local Memphis. Johnson's defense argued that the trial was tainted by the jury's exposure to what they deemed unnecessarily graphic crime scenes and autopsy photographs of Young Dolph. Yet, the court did not find these claims substantive enough to warrant a new trial.