A Shelby County jury found Edward “Eddie” Wurl guilty as charged of first-degree murder and of being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, nearly two years after he fatally shot Memphis musician Blake Rhea outside a Midtown bar. The verdict closes out a case that began in the early hours of November 6, 2024, when Rhea was shot and stabbed outside Louis Connelly's Bar for Fun Times & Friendship near Crump Stadium.
Police responded just after 1 a.m. that Wednesday, and Rhea was found suffering from both cut wounds and gunshot wounds in a car, according to WATN-TV. Police say Rhea and Wurl had a verbal altercation inside the bar before stepping outside, where security footage captured Rhea speaking with a man and then walking toward his car. Investigators say a man followed Rhea while carrying what appeared to be a knife, and the two struggled at the vehicle before Wurl shot Rhea and walked away from the scene, as reported by WREG.
Memphis police say Rhea and Wurl had recently been romantically involved with the same woman, a detail that helped establish the motive prosecutors presented at trial. The station's report also notes that Wurl's phone contained an internet search, conducted one week before the shooting, asking whether a gun unused for years would still work — a detail attributed to the attorney's office. Prosecutors also said Wurl had repeatedly visited Rhea's Facebook profile in the months leading up to the killing, per the same account.
Surveillance Video and Digital Evidence Sealed the Case
Bar surveillance footage reviewed by investigators showed Wurl following Rhea to his vehicle while holding what appeared to be a knife behind his back, then leaning into the open driver's door during a struggle as several muzzle flashes became visible, according to WATN-TV. That combination of video evidence, the pre-shooting search history, and the pattern of visits to Rhea's Facebook page became central to proving the premeditation required for a first-degree murder conviction under Tennessee law.
Wurl was taken into custody after the shooting and ultimately surrendered to law enforcement following an anonymous tip to CrimeStoppers of Memphis and Shelby County that led to a $4,000 payout for the tipster. He was charged with first-degree murder and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun — the felon-in-possession charge rooted in 1994 convictions for burglary and unlawful wounding out of Fairfax City, Virginia, which legally barred him from owning a firearm.
Mental Evaluation and Grand Jury Referral
After Wurl's arrest, a Shelby County judge requested a mental evaluation for him, WATN-TV reported. The case was sent to the grand jury on February 7, 2025. Wurl remained in jail without bond when a report on the case was published.
A Bassist Who Shaped Memphis Music for Decades
Rhea's death reverberated well beyond Midtown because of his standing in Memphis's music scene. He was a touring bassist who spent 2024 on the road with the Grammy-nominated blues-rock band Southern Avenue, playing major festival dates on Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival tour alongside Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp, according to Relix. He had also recently performed with Southern Avenue at Farm Aid 2024 before his death.
His musical roots in the city ran back to middle school and deepened at Rhodes College, where Relix reports he co-founded CYC, or Cooper Young Cyndicate, a regional favorite blending rock, funk, hip-hop, and jazz. He went on to perform with other regional acts, including The Gamble Brothers Band and Lord T & Eloise.
Beyond the stage, Rhea spent years as a bass instructor at the School of Rock in Germantown, mentoring hundreds of young local musicians, according to The Daily Memphian. Several of his former students went on to become music teachers themselves, underscoring the educational imprint he left across the Memphis area.
Louis Connelly's Bar for Fun Times & Friendship, where the dispute that preceded the shooting began, is at 322 S. Cleveland St., according to the Memphis Business Journal.
