Jonathan Outlaw, a 42-year-old man from Clarksville, Tennessee, and a former police officer at Tennessee State University, was fatally shot on the evening of October 24, 2017, at a Phillips 66 gas station in Cedar Hill. The incident occurred when Outlaw arranged to meet individuals who had responded to his Craigslist advertisement for the sale of his 2015 Chevrolet Camaro.
The meeting, however, was a setup for a robbery.
Three individuals from Nashville had arranged to meet Outlaw under the pretense of purchasing his vehicle. During the encounter, they attempted to steal the car, and in the process, Jonathan Outlaw was shot multiple times. He succumbed to his injuries at the scene. The suspects then fled in the stolen Camaro.
The investigation quickly led to the identification of three suspects: 19-year-old Ricardo Lamont Murray Jr., 17-year-old Kemontea Dovon McKinney, and Johnathan D. Reed. Murray was placed on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Top 10 Most Wanted list and surrendered to authorities in Nashville a few days after the murder. McKinney, the juvenile, was also taken into custody. All three were charged with criminal homicide, aggravated robbery, and theft of property over $10,000.
Kemontea Dovon McKinney was tried as an adult in Robertson County Circuit Court. In July 2019, a jury convicted him of premeditated first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree felony murder, aggravated robbery, and theft of property. The court merged the convictions and sentenced him to life in prison. McKinney's conviction was later appealed, and the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals initially reversed the decision, citing an issue with the admissibility of his pretrial statement. However, the Tennessee Supreme Court subsequently reviewed the case and, in May 2023, reversed the appellate court's decision, reinstating the original judgment of the trial court and affirming McKinney's life sentence.
The legal outcomes for Ricardo Lamont Murray Jr. and Johnathan D. Reed are less publicly documented. While their initial charges were the same as McKinney's, information regarding their trials or potential plea agreements and subsequent sentencing is not readily available in public records. The focus of the legal proceedings that have been publicly reported has been on the conviction and appeals process of Kemontea Dovon McKinney.
