A 22-year-old Memphis man is facing a fresh set of criminal charges after he allegedly bolted from a courtroom inside the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center the moment a judge ordered him taken into custody, sparking a chase through the building and out onto a downtown street before deputies caught up with him.
According to WREG, Devin Johnson was in court on Wednesday when a judge revoked his bond and ordered him immediately taken into custody. Per an affidavit of complaint cited by the station, Johnson spoke to the judge before allegedly bolting from the courtroom rather than surrendering. Deputies said he pushed past people inside the Criminal Justice Center at 201 Poplar Avenue and made it through the building's entry checkpoint before exiting onto the street.
Shelby County sheriff's deputies chased Johnson through the facility and eventually took him into custody nearby on Washington Street, the station reported. One deputy suffered a hand injury during the chase, according to the deputy's own account relayed by WREG.
From Recognizance Release to Felony Escape
Johnson had been arrested in 2025 on a charge of unlawful possession of a weapon and was released on his own recognizance, per the same account. Tennessee law classifies felon-in-possession offenses as a Class E felony, while general unlawful carrying without a statutory prohibition is typically treated as a misdemeanor, according to Justia. Tennessee judges have broad statutory authority to revoke a defendant's pretrial release and hold them without bail if they violate release conditions or otherwise obstruct proceedings, according to FindLaw's summary of Tennessee Code Annotated § 40-11-141(b). What specific violation triggered Wednesday's bond revocation has not been made public.
Johnson now faces charges of escape, resisting arrest and evading arrest stemming from the courtroom sprint, the report notes. Escape from custody while held on a felony charge is a Class E felony under Tennessee law, and any sentence for that conviction must run consecutively to whatever sentence results from the underlying weapons case, per FindLaw's citation of Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-16-605. Evading arrest on foot, meanwhile, is typically charged as a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and fines as high as $2,500, according to the same statutory summary.
A Familiar Strain on 201 Poplar's Security
The Walter L. Bailey, Jr. Criminal Justice Center, which opened in 1981 and houses General Sessions and Criminal Courts alongside police headquarters and the county's main male detention facility, has faced scrutiny over its security posture in recent years. The Shelby County Sheriff's Office is responsible for securing all 54 courtrooms in the county and staffs screening checkpoints with metal detectors at building entrances, per county government documentation. A 2025 jail needs assessment flagged persistent bottlenecks at 201 Poplar, including out-of-service escalators and congested public lobbies that thousands of visitors pass through daily.
The sheriff's office also launched an internal review last year after social media video appeared to show a man brandishing a gun inside the same complex, underscoring longstanding public concerns about checkpoint security. Those pressures come as the office has publicly acknowledged ongoing facility and staffing upgrades following 13 inmate deaths in 2025 and years of overcrowding complaints at the jail. Hoodline has previously reported on a lawsuit tied to conditions at the same facility.
Johnson is scheduled to return to court on Friday. It remains unclear whether the sheriff's office will change entry checkpoint procedures following the deputy's injury and Johnson's brief escape onto downtown streets.
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