Young Dolph‘s accused killer, Justin Johnson, has asked the judge in the murder trial of the Hip Hop star to consider selecting potential jurors from outside of Memphis.
The Associated Press has confirmed that Luke Evans filed a petition with Judge Jennifer J. Mitchell on Friday (February 2) stating that his concern involves what he called the “relentless media coverage” surrounding the late rapper’s murder.
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Evans is concerned that the “public visceral outrage” surrounding Young Dolph’s death could taint the jury pool.
“The victim in the case is beloved here,” Evans said, while claiming that Dolph’s fans have allegedly threatened Johnson and his co-defendant, Cornelius Smith, with “lynching” and being killed in prison. Evans feels that these calls for violence are “seeking vengeance, not justice.”
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Prosecutors, on the other hand, countered that the 2010 slaying of former University of Memphis and Memphis Grizzlies player Lorenzen Wright was able to sequester an impartial jury on the matter, and didn’t find Evans’ filing necessary.
Mitchell has not yet made a ruling on the matter.
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Back in November, Young Dolph’s fiancée, Mia Jaye, voiced her disappointment with the lack of progress made in the late rapper’s murder case.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Jaye explained she hasn’t publicly made statements about the investigation to avoid muddying the waters.
“I’m fed up. It’s been two years’ worth of conspiracies. Two years’ worth of unknowing. Two years’ worth of people not properly communicating to you,” she said. “I didn’t know if garnering more attention would hurt or help, and I wanted to help. I feel like I tried that, and I don’t feel like it was helping. I feel like we weren’t being taken seriously.”
Jaye went on to explain that her frustrations escalated when she learned through the media, not authorities, that the original judge in the case was removed by the Tennessee appeals court — a slight she felt disregarded Dolph’s loved ones.
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Jaye’s call for action comes shortly after she shared her theory as to why Young Dolph was murdered.
“If I were to guess, based on the history of things — rap shit, bro,” she said on Instagram Live. “A song, or two. Some ego shit. Let’s break that down even more. Ego shit. He not here because of ego… He’s not here because of some ego shit… At the end of the fucking day, we killing people because of a bruised, a scarred ego?”
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Justin Johnson, his brother Jermarcus Johnson, Hernandez Govan (who allegedly ordered the hit on Young Dolph), and a fourth man named Cornelius Smith have all been charged in Dolph’s murder.
Justin Johnson and Smith have pleaded not guilty to their charges, while Jermarcus Johnson has pleaded guilty to three counts of accessory after the fact.
