In the autumn of 2016, a life was tragically cut short in a Memphis motel room, setting off a homicide investigation that, in some respects, remains unresolved. On October 6, 2016, police were called to the Americas Best Value Inn on American Way, where they discovered the body of 22-year-old Carlton Snipes, a male resident of Memphis. Snipes had been fatally shot.
Another man in the room had also been shot but survived his injuries.
The investigation into the death of Carlton Snipes quickly led to a person of interest. The surviving victim identified 19-year-old Joshua Winters as having been present during the shooting. Winters, who was seen leaving the motel in a 2003 Dodge Ram truck, turned himself in to the Memphis Police Department. During questioning, he admitted to being at the motel with another man for a drug transaction. However, Winters claimed that it was the other, unidentified man who pulled out a gun and started shooting.
Based on the testimony of the surviving victim and Winters's own admission of being at the scene, he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder in the perpetration of a robbery. Despite his cooperation in implicating the second individual, the search for the alleged shooter continued. Memphis police released surveillance footage from the motel showing the second suspect, described as a tall, thin man with a low-cut hairstyle and a goatee, wearing a purple t-shirt, blue/gray cargo shorts, and white shoes.
In the years that followed the initial arrest and charge against Joshua Winters, the case surrounding Carlton Snipes' death grew cold in the public eye. Information regarding the outcome of the legal proceedings against Winters, including whether his case went to trial, if he was convicted, or if he accepted a plea agreement, is not readily available in public records. Similarly, there have been no subsequent reports or announcements indicating that the second suspect, believed by investigators to be the triggerman, was ever identified, located, or taken into custody. The case, therefore, remains partially unresolved, with the individual who police believe pulled the trigger seemingly having evaded justice.
