Young Dolph’s killer confesses in court to shooting the rapper

On the second day of the murder trial of the men accused of killing Memphis rapper Young Dolph in November 2021, one of the defendants, Cornelius Smith, admitted to shooting Dolph along with co-defendant Justin Johnson outside Makeda’s Cookies. According to the Memphis Commercial appealSmith also admitted to accepting a $40,000 ransom for the murder.

Smith told jurors he and Johnson both received $40,000, while co-defendant Hernandez Govan received $20,000 for planning the murder. Smith said he had fallen on hard times and abused drugs such as Oxycontin and Ecstasy after his nine-year-old son died several months earlier. He also claimed the contract killing was one of several cases on Dolph’s Paper Route Empire label roster, which he was alerted to by another Memphis native, Big Jook, who was reportedly the older brother of Dolph’s rap rival Yo Gotti. Jook himself was shot and killed this January and the investigation is ongoing.

Smith said the original plan was changed on the fly after he and Johnson spotted Dolph’s wrapped SUV, leading to the ambush outside Makeda’s. He recalled being injured by return fire from Dolph’s brother Marcus and having to clean up after abandoning their white Mercedes – the same vehicle police pursued until Govan was arrested. The sad irony: Smith received only an $800 payment for the shooting before his arrest in Indiana in January 2022.