A Tennessee jury convicted Justin Johnson in the 2021 shooting death of rapper Young Dolph.
The jury, made up of 9 white women, 2 Black men, and one white man, found Johnson guilty on all counts of 1st-degree murder, conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder, and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun.
The jury deliberated for 4 hours before returning a guilty verdict. The trial, which began on Sept. 23, was moved to another county due to the extensive media coverage.
Johnson was immediately sentenced to life in prison on the murder charge. He will be sentenced on the other charges in November.
Johnson (right) is one of 2 shooters who ambushed Dolph (left) outside a cookie store in Memphis on November 17, 2021.
Police recovered 300 shell casings at the scene. Dolph (Adolph Thornton Jr.), 36, was pronounced dead at the scene.
After the shooting, Justin, an aspiring rapper, took to Instagram and bragged about not snitching.
“These n***as taking criminal responsibility I’m taking street responsibility regardless I’m foreva the biggest. They can throw away the keys before I ever eat da cheese,” he said.
The jury heard from a witness who said the shooting was the result of a feud between 2 rival record labels – one owned by Dolph and the other label founded by Memphis rapper Yo Gotti (pictured).
Cornelius Smith, the second gunman, testified that he was offered $100,000 by Yo Gotti’s brother, Big Jook (Anthony Mims) to carry out the hit on Dolph.
Smith testified that he planned to keep $40,000 and give $20,000 each to the 2 shooters. A third man, Hernandez Govan was also charged with murder. Govan was to receive $10,000 for his role in hiring the shooters.
But Smith claims he only received $800 from Big Jook. He said he initially received $500 after the shooting. Then someone connected with Big Jook gave Smith’s girlfriend $300.
Smith said he never received another dime from Big Jook for the hit on Dolph.
Big Jook (right) was fatally shot after attending a funeral in Memphis, Tennessee on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. No arrests have been made in Big Jook’s murder.
Yo Gotti, 43, ramped up his own security after his brother’s murder.
On the witness stand, Smith implicated Yo Gotti in the hit on Young Dolph.
He said Gotti paid Smith’s attorney $50,000 to represent him. Smith said the money was wired from a bank account linked to Yo Gotti’s record label CMG (Cocaine Music Group).
Dolph and Gotti’s feud was born when Dolph refused to sign with Gotti’s record label and launched his own record label. The two rappers released diss tracks about each other.
In a February 2017 diss track, titled “Play Wit Yo’ B****”, Dolph suggested he’d slept with Yo Gotti’s baby mama.
While on tour in Charlotte, North Carolina in February 2017, a vehicle Dolph was riding in was shot at 100 times. Dolph escaped injury. His near-death experience spawned the diss track “100 Shots.”
In May 2017, Gotti’s artist Blac Youngsta and two other men were arrested as suspects in the attempted murder on Dolph.
But charges against Blac Youngsta were eventually dropped.
Then in September 2017, Dolph was shot outside the Lowes Hollywood hotel in Los Angeles. Dolph was wounded in that shooting.
The LAPD denied reports that Yo Gotti — a guest at the same hotel — was a suspect in the shooting.
