A 27-year-old man is facing aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery charges after Memphis police say he was part of a group that forced a stranger into a car, beat him with wooden sticks, and pointed handguns at him before dumping him on another street. Devonte Ivory is being held on a $250,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.
According to WREG, the victim was walking southbound on Pope Street near Pacific and Faxon in the Highland Heights neighborhood on Sept. 1 when a silver-and-blue Infiniti pulled up. Two passengers in the back seat grabbed him and threw him inside the car, the outlet reports, while the driver and front-seat passenger struck him with wooden sticks and pointed handguns at him, demanding his money and phone.
The driver eventually dropped the victim off on Hillcrest, but not before threatening to kill him if he called police, per the report. As the driver sped off, the station's account states, the three remaining passengers kept assaulting the victim. Investigators say the man deliberately avoided walking straight home afterward, hoping to keep the suspects from learning where he lived.
Repainted Car Becomes Key Evidence
Two days after the attack, on Sept. 3, officers spotted the suspect vehicle in the 600 block of Hillcrest with two men getting into it, and police say the driver matched the description given by the victim, the same report notes. The car, a 2015 Infiniti Q50, had reportedly been repainted blue, but investigators found red paint underneath the fresh coat — matching a citation the vehicle had received in July in the 800 block of North Hollywood, according to the outlet's reporting.
Police say the victim later identified Devonte Ivory as one of the men who kidnapped and robbed him. WREG's report does not indicate whether the three other suspects involved in the abduction have been arrested.
Charges Carry Steep Prison Exposure
Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-13-304, aggravated kidnapping is a Class B felony punishable by 8 to 30 years in prison and fines up to $25,000, according to Justia Law. Aggravated robbery carries the same Class B felony classification and sentencing range under Tennessee Code § 39-13-402, per the same source.
Prosecutors could seek to escalate the kidnapping charge further. Under Tennessee Code § 39-13-305, kidnapping can be elevated to especially aggravated kidnapping — a Class A felony punishable by 15 to 60 years — if the victim suffered serious bodily injury or a deadly weapon was displayed, according to Justia Law. Under Tennessee's two-axis sentencing grid, a Range I standard offender convicted of a Class B felony faces a baseline prison sentence between 8 and 12 years, per N. Cate Law.
Felony cases in Shelby County typically begin with arraignment and preliminary bond hearings in Shelby County General Sessions Court before moving to Shelby County Criminal Court if a grand jury indicts, according to the Comptroller of the Treasury of Tennessee.
A Rough Stretch for Highland Heights
The stretch of Pacific and Faxon avenues where the kidnapping began falls under the jurisdiction of the Memphis Police Department's Tillman Station Precinct, located at 426 Tillman Street. That same corridor has seen a string of violent incidents in recent months — Hoodline previously reported a deadly robbery on Faxon Avenue in August, and an attempted robbery shooting near Pacific and Baltic in early September that left a man critically wounded.
The pattern comes even as citywide numbers show violent crime trending down. Memphis Police Department year-end data for 2025 showed a 31% decrease in robberies and a 22% decrease in aggravated assaults compared to 2024, and the department's second-quarter 2026 report found that citywide Part I crime fell 36% during the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2025. In the 38122 zip code covering Berclair and Highland Heights, overall reported crime dropped 13.18% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to Smart City Memphis.
