Young Dolph Murder Suspects Given a Week to Hire Lawyers

The men accused of murdering young Young Dolph have been given a week to find legal representation.
Judge Lee Coffee ordered Cornelius Smith, 32, and Justin Johnson, 23, to hire attorneys for . m 9 percent until February 4, FOX13 Memphis reported. Or they‘ll be appointed public defenders. At their first hearing earlier this month, the murder suspects rejected a court-appointed lawyer, insisting they were in the process of finding a lawyer for the case.

“If you have hired a lawyer, that‘s fine, but as I told you 10 days ago, I can‘t allow you to sit in jail week after week, month after month, without a lawyer,” Coffee said in court Friday. “If you don‘t have a lawyer hired on Feb. 4, I‘m going to hire a private attorney to represent both of you. ”

Both Johnson and Smith claimed their families were working to find a lawyer and expressed confident they would be represented by February 4.

Smith was extradited from a Mississippi prison where he had been held on burglary charges since December 9, 2021.

Earlier this month, two men were charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in connection with the murder of Young Dolph whose legal name is Adolph Robert Thornton Jr. The 36-year-old rapper was gunned down at Makeda’s Cookie Shop in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 17, 2021. The attack was overhauled in surveillance footage released by police, and the video shows two masked gunmen at the scene before fleeing in a vehicle.

A few weeks ago, Smith was extradited to Tennessee from a Mississippi prison where he was being held on burglary charges. Johnson was arrested in Indiana on January 11 along with Shundale Barnett, 26, who was in a vehicle with the suspect at the time of his arrest. Barnnet faced multiple charges, including first-degree murder, including an accomplice.

Both Johnson and Smith are being held without bond.

“Every artist on the label–Key Glock, Jay Fizzle, Moochie Grape, Kenny Muney, Joddy Badass, ChiTana, Big Unc, Snupe Bandz, and Paper Route Woo–were all hand-picked, because beyond talent, [Dolph] saw in them the same hunger and determination he saw in himself,” PRE CEO Daddyo said in a statement ahead of the project’s release. “He spent time cultivating them as artists, and mentored them until they discovered their own greatness. Each one is more than ready to fulfill their destiny. And they have the support of this entire Empire behind them.”

Read More  Lil Wayne Says He Needs A Wife