The new acting U.S. attorney here announced new sentences recently for the crimes of running an organized retail theft ring, shooting a machine gun at the cops (on a warning about putting down a cell phone while driving), and a resentencing for the 2002 shooting of a pizza delivery person in Cooper-Young.
Shoplifting conspiracy
Four Memphians were sentenced in the last two months for an organized retail theft conspiracy worth millions.
Acting U.S. Attorney Reagan Fondren’s office said the scheme stretched three years from April 2018 to May 2020. In it, three people — Latasha Brooks, 42; Coyoti Carter, 47; and Tarnisha Woods, 49 — would go to stores and shoplift “large quantities of health and beauty products including memory supplements, hair regrowth treatments, weight loss aids, and allergy medicines.”
Afterward, Keith Guy, 38, would pay Brooks for the stolen goods. Brooks would then pay Carter and Woods for their work. Guy then sold the stolen goods to resellers on the internet. He used the U.S. Postal Service to ship hundreds of parcels to locations across the country.
Investigation officials estimated the total retail value of the products stolen in the scheme at over $4 million.
The four were indicted by a grand jury in December. They all pleaded guilty. Earlier this month, Guy was sentenced to 34 months in prison. In August, Brooks was sentenced to 34 months, Carter was sentenced to one year and one day, and Woods was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Cell phone warning turns to machine gun sentence
On February 1, 2022, a Shelby County Sheriff’s deputy saw Jaquan Bridges, 22, driving slowly near I-240 and Walnut Grove while looking at his cell phone. The deputy activated emergency equipment to alert Bridges (either flashed the car’s lights, wooped the siren, or both) to put the phone down.
“Bridges rolled down his passenger-side window and fired gunshots at the deputy’s vehicle, striking it several times,” reads a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. “Bridges then fled, leading deputies on a high-speed pursuit for 10 miles, before Bridges hit at least three other vehicles and crashed into a concrete barrier.
“When Bridges was taken into custody, deputies recovered a Glock .40 caliber pistol with an attached machine gun conversion device (known as a ‘switch’) and extended magazine.”
Two years later, Bridges pleaded guilty to the charges. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to nine years for possessing a machine gun.
Resentencing in 2002 Cooper-Young shooting
The original sentence for Louie Holloway, 43, of Memphis, was vacated in 2022 after changes in gun laws in Tennessee. (It’s unclear which law change brought the decision to vacate: constitutional carry or allowing short-barreled rifles and shotguns).
Holloway was serving life in prison for the 2002 murder and attempted robbery of John Stambaugh, a University of Memphis student who was delivering pizza in Cooper-Young.
(Read Bruce VanWyngarden’s great column on the ordeal from the time here.)
After his sentence was vacated, however, the district court immediately scheduled a resentencing hearing. In that one, Holloway was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison. There is no parole in the federal system.
