Final Young Dolph Killer Gets 20 Years in Prison in Plea Deal

An admitted Young Dolph killer gets sentenced to 20 years in prison after accepting a plea deal.

On Friday (May 15), Cornelius Smith, one of the men charged in the November 2021 killing of Memphis rapper Young Dolph, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, as part of a plea agreement. Smith, who is the third and final murder suspect in the case, appeared at a hearing on Friday in Memphis and confirmed to the court that he accepted the plea deal for a lesser charge.

Smith, 32, was initially charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder among other charges. All those charges will be dropped in accordance with the plea agreement. Smith’s assistance with the prosecution during the case proved vital in securing a conviction against Justin Johnson, the second gunman involved in the late rapper’s shooting death.

According to ABC24 Memphis, Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman informed Dolph’s family about Smith’s sentencing.

“From his arrest until now, Cornelius has accepted responsibility, and he’s agreed to cooperate,” Hagerman told the media. “[The family] understood and they were in the loop all along that to solve complex cases like this often times you need somebody to cooperate, and that means at the end of the day you have to take a person’s cooperation and truthful testimony into consideration, but I think we struck a balance of something that’s firm and something that gave them a measure of justice that they wanted.”

Smith’s defense attorney, Michael Scholl, said his client is expected to receive credit for time served, which would leave him with 15 years left to serve in prison.

Smith confessed to killing Young Dolph, born Adolph Thornton Jr., and testified that he and Justin Johnson were executing a hit put out by Big Jook, who is the late brother of rapper Yo Gotti. Johnson, 27, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison plus 35 years. Meanwhile, Hernandez Govan, the man accused of masterminding the plot, was cleared of all charges last summer.