In the late summer of 2016, a violent encounter in the Orange Mound neighborhood of Memphis tragically cut short the life of 35-year-old Elmore Howard. On the evening of Tuesday, August 16, officers were called to the 700 block of Marianna Street, where they discovered Howard on the ground, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Before being rushed to the hospital in critical condition, Howard was able to provide investigators with a crucial piece of information: the name of the man he said
had robbed and shot him, Jason Smith. Despite the efforts of medical staff at Regional One, Howard succumbed to his injuries a week later, on Tuesday, August 23. His death was officially ruled a homicide by the Shelby County Medical Examiner.
For years, the investigation into Elmore Howard's murder languished, becoming another cold case in the files of the Memphis Police Department due to a lack of evidence and witnesses willing to come forward. The initial lead provided by Howard himself was not enough to proceed with a prosecution, and the case grew stagnant. The pursuit of justice for Howard and his family seemed to have hit a dead end, with no new developments for nearly seven years.
A breakthrough finally came in October of 2023 when the Memphis Police Department's Cold Case Unit received new information that pointed them back to the man named in the victim's dying declaration. This new evidence was enough to breathe life back into the dormant investigation and once again focus on Jason Smith as the primary suspect. After a renewed investigative effort, the case was presented to a grand jury.
In a significant development, on May 24, 2024, the Shelby County Grand Jury handed down an indictment against 40-year-old Jason Smith, formally charging him with first-degree murder in the perpetration of especially aggravated robbery and being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun. At the time of the indictment, Smith was already incarcerated in a medium-security federal correctional institution in Yazoo City, Mississippi, on unrelated charges, with a scheduled release date in December of 2025. Authorities announced their intention to serve the murder warrant to Smith while he was still in federal custody, ensuring that though justice was delayed, it would not be denied.
