A Shelby County jury on Thursday convicted 36-year-old Kordelro Harris of voluntary manslaughter for shooting and killing his girlfriend, 32-year-old Jasmine Eason, inside a South Memphis home. Eason, a mother of eight, was killed while three of her children were reportedly inside the house. Harris is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17, 2026.
Verdict and charges
Jurors found Harris guilty of voluntary manslaughter and of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, according to Action News 5. Prosecutors told the jury the shooting followed an argument between Harris and Eason in the early-morning hours of Dec. 9, 2023. The convictions carry felony exposure that will be weighed when the judge decides Harris’s sentence next month.
How the case unfolded
Court records show Harris initially told officers that masked intruders burst into the Rayner Street home and shot Eason. Multiple young witnesses at the scene contradicted that version of events, and investigators say Harris later changed his story, as reported by Yahoo News. Search warrants executed at the house reportedly turned up a blood-covered 9mm handgun and several spent shell casings, details prosecutors leaned on at trial. Those findings were among the key pieces of evidence the state presented to jurors.
Family reaction
Eason’s relatives told reporters she had been trying to leave the relationship and that she feared Harris, according to Action News 5’s coverage in the days after the December 2023 shooting. They described her as a hairstylist and entrepreneur who braided hair across the neighborhood and said the children will need counseling after witnessing the killing, per Action News 5. For the family, the verdict closes one chapter but does little to blunt the loss they say has shaken both the children and the wider community.
Local context
Domestic-violence-related homicides and gun-involved violent incidents have remained a stubborn problem in Memphis. Recent analysis from the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute shows that a high share of violent incidents involve firearms and that domestic-aggravated assaults have stayed elevated, as detailed by the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute. Local advocates say those trends make it harder to protect victims and children who are caught in violent domestic disputes. Against that backdrop, Eason’s killing has hit a nerve in neighborhood conversations about safety inside the home as much as on the street.
Legal implications and next steps
Harris is set to return to court for a June 17 sentencing hearing, where the judge will consider aggravating and mitigating factors before handing down a punishment. Under Tennessee law, voluntary manslaughter is a felony offense and carries significant prison exposure, with statute and sentencing guidelines outlining classifications and ranges. The separate conviction for employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony is prosecuted as its own offense and is commonly subject to mandatory minimum terms that may be ordered to run consecutively to the underlying sentence, according to Tennessee code summaries and case law. Legal filings from the defense and prosecution in the coming weeks will help shape the exact calculation the judge applies.
The verdict ends the trial phase but not the long aftermath for Eason’s family, who in December urged neighbors to rally around the children as the case moved through court. Sentencing on June 17 will mark the next public milestone in a killing that has drawn steady attention in South Memphis since December 2023.
