 Laronda Turner
One voice said, “Don’t shoot me,” and another voice said, “You done [sic] messed up.”
Then multiple gunshots erupted from what sounded like an automatic weapon–as many as 15 shots in all. He heard a woman scream. When Jennings looked out his living room window, he saw two Black men walking away from the duplex next door. He recognized one of the men as having been at the duplex in the past. The two men got into a “big” maroon-colored car, which was parked across the street. The car drove toward Chelsea Avenue and out of sight.
Jennings called 911. When police arrived, they were unable to get in through the front door because Isom’s bullet-riddled body was blocking it. Entering through a side door, police found two other victims. The body of 34-year-old Michael Glover was found in a rear bedroom closet. The body of 28-year-old Chastity Springfield was found hanging half out of a window in that bedroom.
All had been shot multiple times. The floor was littered with shell casings.
No fingerprints or DNA evidence was recovered that linked anyone to the crime.
Not long after the murders, police learned that the Louis & Sue Supermarket across Chelsea Avenue had a security camera that pointed at Lake Grove Street. The recording was less than crisp and was dark due to the time of day. The video showed that around 10:30 p.m., a vehicle arrived and parked on Lake Grove Street across the street from Isom’s residence. At that time, there appeared to be “some movement in the car” when the vehicle’s doors opened and closed. After the initial movement, no additional movement occurred inside or around the vehicle until shortly after 1:30 a.m. After the individuals appeared to get inside the car, the car was driven away from the residence at approximately 1:33 a.m. It turned left off of Lake Grove Street onto Chelsea Avenue and passed directly in front of the store.
The car in the video was an older model maroon car with a silver streak on the side of the vehicle. Police learned that a similar car was owned by 23-year-old Laronda Turner and 31-year-old Tony Thomas, and both were brought in for questioning on September 28, 2015.
Thomas was shown a photograph of the car, a red 2000 Ford Crown Victoria, from the video. He recognized the car and wrote the words, “This is our car,” on the photograph. Turner also viewed the photograph and identified it as her vehicle, writing, “This is my car. I have the same car.” A search of the car turned up no evidence related to the crime.
In November 2015, 26-year-old DeMarco “D Money” Hawkins became a suspect because he was bragging on Facebook about the murders. On November 23, 2015, the police spoke with Jasmine Dorris, a woman whom Hawkins had been messaging on Facebook, and showed police messages from Hawkins wherein he implicated himself in the killings.
Hawkins was arrested May 10, 2016 at the Peabody Hotel, where he worked. Police later said the arrest was delayed because they had trouble locating him. Detective Nick Dandridge interviewed Hawkins for several hours and later reported that Hawkins ultimately admitted to participating in the crime with Thomas and Turner. He signed an eight-page statement and was arrested on three charges of first-degree murder.
In January 2017, Thomas, Turner and Hawkins were indicted on three charges of first-degree murder by a Shelby County grand jury. Turner was arrested on February 1, 2017. Thomas was arrested in July 2017 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
In April 2019, Thomas and Turner went to trial in Shelby County Criminal Court. The prosecution contended that the murders were gang-related retaliation.
A journal found in Isom’s home portrayed the home as a hotbed for gang-related activities. One of Isom’s younger brothers, Jeremiah, testified that Isom was a member of the Vicelords street gang, as was Glover. Jeremiah said that Thomas was the highest-ranking member and that Isom was ranked just below Thomas. Jeremiah testified that on September 2, 2015, a few weeks before the murders, another high-ranking gang member, Ralph Martin, had been murdered.
According to Jeremiah, fellow gang members claimed that Jeremiah had been responsible for Martin’s security at the time Martin was killed. The gang had a policy requiring a gang member who failed to provide adequate security for a high-ranking member to be punished. Jeremiah testified that Thomas wanted to inflict a “five and out” punishment, meaning that he would be beaten for five minutes and then banished from the gang. However, Jeremiah said that Isom and Glover stood up for him, contending that Jeremiah was not responsible for Martin’s security. Nonetheless, Jeremiah was kicked out of the gang.
Jeremiah testified that on September 25, 2015, the day before the murders, he visited Isom’s home around 5 p.m. to “kick it with my brother.” He said that at about 7 p.m., Thomas arrived with Turner. Around 9 p.m. Jeremiah left. He said that by that time several other people were present, including Springfield. He did not return that night.
Asked whether anybody had a firearm in the home that day, Jeremiah replied, “They [are] Vicelords. So, of course they [are going to have] guns.”
Jerrico Isom, another of Isom’s brothers, testified that he overheard a conversation earlier that day at the home that led him to believe Isom was in danger. He said he overheard Thomas tell two other gang members that Isom was “in the way.” Jerrico testified that he was concerned that Isom would be hurt, but not that he would be killed. He said he warned Isom, but Isom was unconcerned, telling Jerrico to “forget [those] guys, I’m not worried about them.”
Hawkins testified that he initially denied involvement in the crime. He conceded that even after he admitted involvement, his statement was riddled with lies. He said he finally decided to tell the truth or “half of the truth anyway.” After he signed the statement, Hawkins maintained his innocence in jail-recorded phone calls to a girlfriend and his mother.
He said he got involved in the plot to kill Isom during a 30-minute Vicelord meeting on September 25, the day before the shooting. He said that at the meeting, Thomas proposed killing Isom, which shocked those present. When the meeting ended and no one had offered to help Thomas, Hawkins said Thomas pulled him aside and asked him to help. Hawkins said he agreed to take part.
Hawkins insisted that he did not want to kill Isom, but “it was either [Isom] or me.” He said his relationship with Isom had deteriorated after Hawkins had been badly beaten in a fistfight that had been recorded and shared on social media. Other gang members, particularly Isom, had ridiculed Hawkins about his defeat.
At about 11:30 p.m., Hawkins got a ride to the neighborhood where Isom lived. He said that as he approached Isom’s house, Thomas called out to him from the front seat of his car. Turner was in the front passenger seat, he said, as he got into the back seat. He said he grabbed a nine-millimeter pistol from under the seat and Thomas had a Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol.
Hawkins said Thomas knocked on the front door and when Isom opened the door, Thomas fired the first shot. Hawkins said he then opened fire as well. He said Thomas chased Glover to the back of the house and shot Glover. Hawkins said he also fired at Glover. Hawkins said he saw Springfield attempting to jump out of a window. She had pushed an air conditioner out and had one leg over the windowsill. He said he fired shots at Springfield.
At that point, Hawkins said, Turner came in and saw that Glover and Isom were dead. “She asked [whether Springfield was] dead,” Hawkins said. “I said, ‘I guess so,’ so she asked [if she] could see the gun, my gun. I gave it to her, [and] she fired a shot at [Springfield].”
Hawkins said Thomas stole guns and money and all three of them left and got into the car. He said they drove off and he was later dropped off.
Dr. Marco Ross testified that he performed the autopsies. Isom was shot 14 times, Glover was shot seven times, and Springfield was shot three times.
The jury heard a recording of a call Thomas made from the jail to a cousin of Turner’s during which Thomas asked the cousin to tell Turner not to accept an offer of probation. He said that accepting the offer would be “like a sign of guilt,” and that Turner needed to “stick to the script” rather than be “tricked” into taking a deal for probation.
Antoine Dotson, Turner’s cousin, stated that he lived near where Thomas and Turner were living together. He said he went there around 12:00 a.m. on September 26, 2015. When he arrived, Turner was asleep, and Thomas’s family was present. He testified that he remembered being there at that time because he recalled hearing news of the murders the following day. Dotson admitted that he was a member of the East Memphis Vicelords gang and that he knew Isom, Glover, and Martin. He denied speaking with Thomas and Turner about killing Anthony as retribution for Martin’s death.
On May 3, 2019, the jury convicted Thomas and Turner of three counts of first-degree murder. Prior to sentencing, the defense filed a motion for a new trial based on the claim that the prosecution had failed to disclose numerous statements by Hawkins that contradicted his statement and his testimony. That motion was denied and they each were sentenced to life in prison.
In February 2021, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, affirmed the convictions and rejected the defense claims regarding the prosecution’s failure to disclose statements made by Hawkins. The court ruled the withheld statements would not have changed the verdict.
Appeals Judge Camille McMullen dissented, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to convict since it was based solely on the testimony of Hawkins. She cited the state’s common law rule that accomplice testimony required corroboration to sustain a conviction.
Regarding the defense claim relating to the prosecution’s failure to disclose statements by Hawkins, the judge noted: “The record strongly suggests that the State deliberately suppressed Hawkins’[s] inconsistent statements, which were almost entirely at odds with Hawkins’[s] statement to police, in order to ambush both defendants at trial with evidence that…Turner entered Anthony Isom's home and shot the most sympathetic victim, Ms. Springfield, thus cementing her role in all three crimes. The record also indicates that the State, by suppressing these inconsistent statements and effectively ‘flipping the script,’ insulated Hawkins, its star witness, from a meticulously-planned impeachment effort by both Defendants in an otherwise highly circumstantial case.”
Turner and Thomas then appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Turner’s attorney, Josie Holland, argued that the failure to disclose Hawkins’s statements had a profound impact on Turner’s case. Holland contended Turner would have used an alternate defense strategy that would have resulted in a different outcome regarding her guilt or punishment, and she would have used these inconsistent statements as impeachment evidence to attack Hawkins’s credibility at trial. Holland also argued that Hawkins’s testimony implicating Turner was not corroborated and therefore was insufficient.
The Tennessee Innocence Project filed an amicus brief in support of Turner. “Mr. Hawkins’s shifting testimony—across his formal statement to the [Memphis police department], his answers to prosecutorial questioning, and his later trial testimony—contradicted itself on matters as plain and fundamental as whether Ms. Turner was or was not present in Mr. Isom’s residence and whether Ms. Turner did or did not shoot Ms. Springfield, the brief said. “The prosecution’s concealment of these contradictions necessarily interfered both with Ms. Turner’s ability to prepare and present her defense and with the jury’s ability to fairly weigh Mr. Hawkins’s credibility.”
On March 7, 2024, the Tennessee Supreme Court vacated Turner’s convictions and ordered the case dismissed. The court affirmed Thomas’s convictions.
The court did not address Turner’s claim regarding the failure to disclose Hawkins’s statements. Instead, it ruled that there was no evidence corroborating Hawkins’s testimony and therefore, there was insufficient evidence to sustain the conviction.
At the same time, however, the court also ruled that accomplice testimony would no longer require additional corroboration. The court noted that 33 state jurisdictions, the District of Columbia, three federal territorial jurisdictions, 12 federal circuit courts of appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court “have either declined to adopt an accomplice-corroboration rule or have repealed such a rule.” The court declined to make the ruling retroactive.
Turner was released on March 19, 2024.
– Maurice Possley
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