MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A man who faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in a daylong shooting rampage that paralyzed Memphis and left three people dead and three others wounded will face trial in July, a judge said Friday.
Ezekiel Kelly has pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen state charges in the September 2022 mass shooting, which led to a citywide shelter-in-place order and a frantic manhunt.
Judge James Jones Jr. set Kelly’s trial for July 14 during a brief hearing.
Kelly, 22, was charged in the deaths of Dewayne Tunstall, Richard Clark and Allison Parker. During a news conference in March 2023, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said prosecutors plan to seek death if Kelly is found guilty of first-degree murder.
Mulroy listed factors for his decision to file a notice to seek the death penalty, including that it was a random mass shooting and that Kelly has a prior conviction for aggravated assault.
At least three witnesses saw Kelly shoot Tunstall during a gathering at a Memphis home at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2022, according to a police affidavit. Clark and Parker were shot later that day, as Kelly was driving around Memphis, livestreaming some of his activities, authorities said.
Police said three other people were wounded in the shootings. An indictment also charges Kelly with reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, commission of an act of terrorism, theft of property and evading arrest.
The shootings led to the shutdown of Memphis’ public bus system, the lockdown of two college campuses and the stoppage of a minor league baseball game.
Kelly carjacked at least two vehicles before he was arrested when he crashed a stolen car while fleeing police, authorities said.
Police first said that four people were killed, but later revised the total to three after investigators found that one of the deaths was not related to the rampage.
The violence unfolded just a few months after Kelly was released early from a three-year prison sentence for a pair of shootings in 2020.
In February of that year, Kelly, then 17, was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder and other crimes in two shootings committed a few hours apart. Both victims survived but did not cooperate with prosecutors, according to court records, and Kelly pleaded guilty to reduced charges of aggravated assault in April 2021.
Kelly was sentenced to three years in prison but was released after serving just over two years, including credit he received for the time he was jailed before his plea.
Relatives have told The Associated Press that Parker was a mother of three who worked as a medical assistant at a clinic in nearby West Memphis, Arkansas.
Clark worked as a campus safety officer at Christian Brothers University after retiring from a career as a corrections officer.
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