On the second day of the murder trial against the men accused of killing Memphis rapper Young Dolph in November 2021, one of the defendants, Cornelius Smith, has admitted to shooting Dolph in front of Makeda’s Cookies alongside co-defendant Justin Johnson. According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Smith also copped to accepting a $40,000 payoff for the hit.
Smith told jurors he and Johnson were both paid $40,000, while co-defendant Hernandez Govan was given $20,000 for planning the hit. Smith said he’d fallen on hard times, abusing drugs like Oxycontin and ecstasy, after the death of his nine-year-old son some months before. He also alleged that the contract killing was one of several marks on Dolph’s Paper Route Empire label roster, which he was made aware of after by another Memphis native, Big Jook, who reports noted was 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 modified on the fly after he and Johnson spotted Dolph’s wrapped SUV, leading to the ambush outside Makeda’s. He recalled being wounded by return fire from Dolph’s brother Marcus, and the process of cleaning up after ditching their white Mercedes — the same vehicle that police tracked to the arrest of Govan. The sad irony: Smith only received one $800 payment for the shooting prior to his arrest in Indiana in January 2022.