Cartiere' Decarlo Johnson, a 24-year-old Black/African American man, was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 5, 2020, after a confrontation outside a neighborhood store in the Frayser area. Investigators said Johnson and Anterious Miles were standing outside the business in the 2800 block of St. Elmo Avenue when the encounter suddenly turned violent.
According to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office, Miles grabbed a pistol from Johnson’s waistband and then shot Johnson several times. Johnson was rushed from the scene to a hospital, but his gunshot wounds proved fatal and he was pronounced dead there.
The investigation soon focused on Miles, who was identified by authorities as the suspect in Johnson’s killing. Miles was 21 at the time he was indicted and was described by prosecutors as a Frayser resident. Fifteen days after the shooting, on March 20, 2020, authorities located and arrested him in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was subsequently returned to Tennessee through extradition so that the case could proceed in Memphis. The available official accounts identify Miles as the defendant and do not describe any additional suspects being arrested or prosecuted in connection with Johnson’s death.
The criminal case moved forward later that year when a Shelby County grand jury indicted Miles. On September 28, 2020, the District Attorney’s Office announced that he had been indicted on first-degree murder, robbery, and felony murder charges. The robbery allegation was tied to the prosecution’s account that Miles took the firearm from Johnson immediately before the shooting. The case ultimately remained pending for several years before reaching a jury, with prosecutors pursuing two separate first-degree-murder theories arising from the same killing: one based on premeditation and the other based on felony murder.
On April 25, 2025, a Shelby County jury found Miles guilty of two counts of first-degree murder as well as robbery. Although Johnson was the only homicide victim in the case, the two murder convictions reflected the State’s separate theories of premeditated murder and felony murder rather than two separate deaths. The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office reported that Miles faced a mandatory life sentence for the first-degree-murder conviction and that his sentencing had been scheduled for May 30, 2025.
The case did not end with the guilty verdicts. Tennessee appellate court records show that Miles filed a notice of appeal on September 26, 2025, under the case State of Tennessee v. Anterious Miles. The appellate record was received in February 2026, Miles completed his appellate briefing on March 13, and the State completed its briefing on July 22, 2026. As of the most recent court information available, no appellate decision or final disposition was listed, meaning the convictions were under appellate review after the prosecution that began with Miles’s arrest in Arkansas more than five years earlier.
