Joshua Zimmerman, the man who committed an audacious escape from the DeSoto County courthouse in 2024, has been sentenced to a collective 55 years in prison following his guilty plea to charges of attempted first-degree murder and the escape. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton, along with representatives from local law enforcement agencies, revealed that Zimmerman would serve 50 years for the attempted murder as a habitual offender and an additional five years for the courthouse escape, which, according to Barton, “Those will run together so you can call it 55, you can call it 50, however you want essentially they will run concurrently,” WREG reported.
In the attempted murder case, Zimmerman was accused of shooting his Southaven roommate in the neck, a shocking crime about which he reportedly boasted shoot to kill, WREG's account clarified; the victim survived despite Zimmerman's statement that he waited for an hour with the victim waiting for him to die before finally deciding to take him to a hospital. After being on the run for two months, Zimmerman was apprehended in Chicago, having been a fugitive since his June escape from the courthouse, which he managed by changing clothes and walking out of the courthouse undisguised, an embarrassing lapse in security that allowed him the time needed to get ahead of authorities.
Zimmerman's guilty plea came amidst a slew of other charges, including kidnapping, credit card fraud, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, as detailed by the DeSoto County District Attorney’s Office, Action News 5 evoked. He also faces grave allegations out of Houston, Texas, where he is charged with the murder of 23-year-old Keyanna Mercer, a crime compounded by Mercer's pregnancy at the time of her death, and a separate felony sexual assault charge in Connecticut, suggesting a pattern of violence that has spanned across state lines.
Adding to his legal woes earlier in July, Zimmerman also entered a guilty plea to federal gun charges for unlawfully transporting firearms, admitting to having possessed a 9mm caliber semi-automatic pistol that had been used in interstate commerce, a felony that could compound his sentence by up to 15 years and impose a fine of as much as $250,000, yet another layer to a dense quilt of criminality Barton stated his office is now "done" with Zimmerman who still faces prosecution in Texas and must also answer to federal authorities, FOX13 Memphis informed.
