Background: News footage of Ezekiel Kelly during his sentencing on Aug. 13 (WREG). Inset: Ezekiel Kelly”s mug shot from 2022 (Shelby County Sheriff’s Office).
A Tennessee man who went on a deadly rampage through Memphis that killed three people and livestreamed the carnage cried in court as he asked for forgiveness.
Ezekiel Kelly, 22, pleaded guilty to 28 criminal charges on Wednesday before he was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without parole plus 221 years in prison. Kelly was charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder among other charges after he went on a violent crime spree that began after midnight on Sept. 7, 2022. After gunning down his first victim, Dewayne Tunstall, at a friend’s home, Kelly went on to commit two more murders and carjackings as an online audience watched in horror.
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Kelly, who was 19 years old at the time of the crime, was visibly emotional during his sentencing and spoke during the hearing. According to courtroom reporting by local CBS affiliate WREG, Kelly told the court, “There’s nothing I can say to bring nobody’s family back, but we all got to live with this.” He added, “I was in the darkest place of my life when this occurred,” and “I do apologize to the victims’ family. I hope one day you find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Aubrey Miller, a relative of one of Kelly’s victims, addressed him directly, saying, “You have lost yourself. The only way you can find yourself is through God.”
Kelly, who smiled widely for his 2022 mug shot, wept openly in court during Miller’s statement.
In addition to Tunstall, Kelly also shot and killed Allison Parker, a mother of three who worked as a medical assistant, and Richard Clark, a retired corrections officer who worked campus security. Surviving victims of Kelly’s spree were LaKesha McGlathen, Rodolfo Zepeda, and Randall Graham.
The plea deal, which took the death penalty off the table, was approved by Kelly’s victims and their families.
The events of that fateful evening took place in the early morning hours and led police to issue a “stay-in-place” warning for Memphis residents as they searched for Kelly. As Law&Crime previously reported, Kelly partially livestreamed some of the events on Facebook Live. Meta told Law&Crime at the time that they were “working closely with law enforcement” and “identified and removed the Live content prior to the Memphis Police Department’s initial public alert.”
Kelly was apprehended at 9:20 p.m. on Sept. 7, hours after committing the mass shooting, two carjackings, and the high-speed police chase that ended his day-long crime spree. He initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea on Wednesday.
District Attorney Steve Mulroy said in a statement after the sentencing, “This plea brings justice by making sure he’ll never be free, while also respecting what many victims have said—they’re ready to move forward. This plea brings certainty and finality to the families, who approve of this settlement and are ready to be done with litigation and move on. It avoids years if not decades of appeals. Most important, it makes certain that this defendant, who terrorized our entire city, will never see the light of day.”
