A man and woman accused of forcing victims to strip, lie on the floor, and hand over cash during back-to-back South Memphis duplex robberies are now behind bars after one of the suspects was found hiding in a crawl space underneath the residence. George Jackson and Makiyah Marks each face multiple felony charges stemming from a pair of home invasions that unfolded within minutes of each other on East Trigg Avenue.
Memphis police responded to a home invasion call just after 4 p.m. near East Trigg Avenue and South Orleans Street, according to Action News 5. Residents told police a man and woman kicked in the front door of a duplex to get inside. Victims later identified Jackson and Marks as the two responsible for the robbery, according to police records cited by the station.
Per the victims, Jackson was armed with a black handgun and forced them to strip and lie on the floor while Marks went through their pockets, taking their money. Once they finished at the first address, police records show Jackson and Marks moved next door and demanded a second set of victims also lie on the floor before taking money from them as well.
Federal Task Force Made the Arrest
The arrests themselves came courtesy of the Memphis Safe Task Force, a federal, state, and local law enforcement operation that took both suspects into custody in the 600 block of Trigg Avenue, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. The arrest was part of a single-day citywide sweep that netted 41 total arrests, per the federal agency's account. Memphis police had already observed Marks standing on the front porch and located Jackson inside the duplex basement, but task force officers went further, discovering the 26-year-old hiding in a crawl space underneath the structure.
That search also turned up two grams of crack cocaine and a scale, the U.S. Marshals Service reported. Combined with what officers recovered at the scene, police say they located 1.1 grams of cocaine, a single ecstasy pill, and a handgun on Jackson. He now faces charges of possession of cocaine with intent to manufacture, sell, or distribute; possession of ecstasy; and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, on top of the robbery-related counts.
Charges Pile Up for Both Suspects
Jackson and Marks were each charged with three counts of aggravated robbery, three counts of attempted aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated burglary, and three counts of theft of property valued at $1,000 or less, according to local police reporting. Federal U.S. Marshals Service records separately tally nine counts of robbery against Jackson tied to the duplex incidents, alongside his drug possession charges.
Jackson was held on a $175,000 bond, while Marks was held on a $140,000 bond. Both are scheduled for their next court appearance Friday. Marks had also been the subject of an active Shelby County arrest warrant for aggravated assault dating back to October 2025, according to Memphis Most Wanted, which had listed the warrant in county databases through the fall.
What Convictions Could Mean
Under Tennessee Code § 39-13-402, aggravated robbery is a Class B felony carrying 8 to 30 years in prison and fines up to $25,000, and convictions are generally ineligible for judicial diversion, according to Justia Law. The aggravated burglary counts each carry a Class C felony designation under Tennessee Code § 39-14-403, punishable by 3 to 15 years, per the same statutory framework. Jackson's felon-in-possession charge falls under Tennessee Code § 39-17-1307, which classifies unlawful firearm possession by a felon with a prior violent conviction as a Class C felony, while non-violent felon possession is treated as a Class E felony.
Hours before the duplex robberies, police in South Memphis were also investigating a fatal murder-suicide in the 600 block of Stephens Place, and were looking into whether that incident was connected to the home invasion call that came in later on East Trigg Avenue, Hoodline previously reported. Whether investigators ultimately found any link between the two cases remains an open question.
Part of a Larger Federal Push
The Memphis Safe Task Force was established under a presidential memorandum in September 2025 as a joint federal, state, and local effort to suppress violent crime across the city, according to the White House, after 2024 FBI data showed Memphis leading the nation in per capita violent crime. Between its launch and June 2026, the task force — which includes the U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, Memphis Police Department, and Tennessee National Guard — surpassed 10,000 total arrests and seized more than 1,700 illegal firearms citywide, per the U.S. Marshals Service. The East Trigg Avenue arrests add to that surge, underscoring how deeply the federal operation has embedded itself in South Memphis neighborhoods.
