Man Arrested For Alleged Connection To Young Dolph's Murder Walks Free After 'Clerical' Error
Justin Johnson, the man found guilty in 2024 of killing the Memphis rapper and was sentenced to life, was discovered to be the cousin of Barnett. In uncovering this information, law enforcement tracked Barnett to Indiana at the time of his detainment and was charged with accessory after the fact and attempted first-degree murder in the case.
However, authorities concluded that Barnett was not involved in the case and that the charges against the man should have been dropped. The Shelby County District Attorney released a statement regarding the mistake, addressing their decision to let Barnett go.
'During the investigation of Justin Johnson, Shundale Barnett was found with [Justin] Johnson at the time of his arrest in Indiana,' the statement read. 'Based on this and other facts, a task force officer with the U.S. Marshals determined there was probable cause to charge Barnett with Accessory After the Fact, and an arrest warrant was issued as part of standard procedure.
'As the investigation progressed, the DA's Office determined that Barnett was not involved in the case and chose not to pursue charges, indicating the charge would be withdrawn. However, a delay in recalling the warrant left it active in the system. This clerical issue has now been resolved, and the charges against Barnett have been officially dismissed.'
It should be noted that Hernandez Govan, the alleged mastermind behind Dolph's demise, is set to head to trial this summer.
More from VIBE.com
Man Convicted Of Young Dolph Murder Gets Additional 35-Years Added On Life Sentence
Young Dolph's Killer Found Guilty On All Counts And Sentenced
Young Dolph Trial: Prosecutors Claim Big Jook Put Hit Out On Rapper

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Tom Cheated on His Wife (And Other Men Do Too)
A case study on infidelity as I saw it happen. We crossed paths frequently in a small, shared gym in a sprawling office building. His name was Tom. He was a handsome fellow with pronounced, proportional, masculine facial features. He stood just over six feet tall and had a thin but built frame, brought to form from his recurring triathlons. We often rode recumbent bikes next to each other; that was where most of our interactions took place, half-winded conversations about our relative status quos. Tom came across as calm and decisive, confident, and organized. With my limited information, I assumed he was good at his job. He married young to his high school sweetheart. Both were only 19-years-old at the time. Now in their 30s, they had a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old. His stay-at-home-wife was raising both. When it was just Tom and me in the gym, he frequently complained about his marriage. He complained bitterly about their lack of a sex life. He said he felt like a passenger on a cruise ship. It's a rather morbid relationship analogy: Cruise ships have the same exact schedule, same shows, same restaurants, over and over again. He was saying nothing was new. He had nothing to look forward to. Tom said they bickered constantly about how to spend their time and money. His biggest complaint was her lack of desire to take care of her body. He said, 'She doesn't look anything like the person I married.' And on some level — I understood his frustrations. If you put great effort into taking care of yourself, you probably want to see at least some effort from your other half. Reciprocity sits at the heart of any relationship. But on another level — she was a stay-at-home mom, busy raising his children. Having and raising kids takes a tremendous toll on the body — something many husbands don't appreciate or account for fairly. His wife wasn't the only one who had changed since entering this marriage. They disagreed on their faith. Since marrying, Tom had done a 180, going from practicing Christian to agnostic and a cynical of religion. His wife attended their local church every week. I'm a divorced man. I knew well the struggle they faced. I did what I could to help, pitching ideas through my own experience, reflecting on mistakes I made and regretted. Being in a struggling marriage is awful. You hate seeing people stuck in that whirlpool. I would lightly suggest, 'Why not a compromise? You go to church with her and she goes to the gym with you?' I even suggested that they try a triathlon together. Tom and I would go back and forth about it. I would typically leave the gym feeling grateful I was no longer married. However, this is where things get dicey, where I truly got nervous about their marriage. Some days it was just Tom and me at the gym. Other days — there were women too. And on those days, Tom was a different man. He was flirty and strutting around, cracking jokes, ribbing the girls, having fun conversations with them. His energy was totally different. It was clear he enjoyed their company. And I have to confess, Tom could conjure up an impressive charm. An aura seemed to glow around him. Between his charisma and his good looks, the women clearly didn't mind his attention. But again — Tom was married. None of these women knew that. He certainly wasn't advertising it. And that's usually how things seem to start. A guy will test the waters with flirty behavior. He'll feel a rush when a girl flirts back, that spark of that 'aliveness' energy we frequently felt as teenagers, a spark that is painfully absent in his marriage. The flirting continues. Eventually, a girl may drop hints of them hanging out. He'll almost do it — then he will chicken out. The flirting continues. Then, over time, he keeps going a little deeper and a little deeper, and before you know it — he's out having drinks with a female coworker under the guise of 'working late' to his wife. One year later Somewhere along the way, Tom stopped showing up at the gym. I bumped into one of his coworkers, a mutual friend, and worked in a question, 'How has Tom been? I haven't seen him in forever.' He said Tom's life had gone into full meltdown. Sure enough, his wife caught him having an affair. She was throwing the legal book at him — custody, alimony, child support. Having spent time around him, Tom's divorce wasn't terribly surprising news. I'd seen similar plays before: life has a lot of cyclical storylines, tropes we get caught in. This was one. His marital meltdown included some of the most common reasons people have affairs. He wasn't happy. He and his wife had clearly grown in different directions. They probably got married too young. Their communication had broken down. It all swirled together, creating a toxic environment and his own set of wandering eyes. There are other reasons men have affairs: they are sleazes, they think they'll get away with it, they don't care, they think it will be a temporary band-aid to their problems. The reasons are many and of course, none of them are justified. My own experience with marriage and our subsequent divorce taught me that marriage is as much work as people said it was going to be — and then some. Sometimes people grow apart. Other times they were never meant to be together. And sometimes, people just aren't willing to put in the work. One thing I've learned from the men I've known who got caught having affairs: They actually generally understood how much pain they would inflict on loved ones if they were caught. But they underestimated how much pain they would inflict on themselves. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ninja sword ban will 'impact limited number of situations', warns crime commissioner
A new ban on ninja swords 'will only have an impact in a limited number of situations', Thames Valley's police boss has warned. Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Barber has criticised the decision to ban ninja swords as he says most weapons used are 'normal household knives'. It comes after the Home Office introduced new legislation which came into force at the start of this month, meaning it is now illegal to possess, manufacture, import or sell ninja swords in England and Wales. Anyone caught in possession of this kind of weapon in private could face six months in prison, to be increased to two years under the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill. READ MORE: Footballer drowned after getting into difficulty in River Thames, inquest hears Those caught with a ninja sword in a public place already face up to four years in jail. But Mr Barber warned that 'we should not lose sight of the fact that most weapons used by criminals are normal household knives'. In a statement issued on Saturday, August 2, he said: "Whilst this new ban will make a difference in providing the police with additional powers to remove these deadly weapons, we should not lose sight of the fact that most weapons used by criminals are normal household knives. "Dealing with individual types of weapons is helpful, but there is no substitute for a robust policing response and continued work to prevent people carrying knives in the first place. "The ban will undoubtedly assist the police in keeping our streets safe, but the new legislation will only have an impact in a limited number of situations. "We should be cautious of governments, of all shades, seeking to create the impression of action through announcements and bans, rather than applying a razor-sharp focus on tackling the root of the problem. READ MORE: Police step up patrols after 'drug use' in wooded area "In Thames Valley I have deliberately focussed our efforts on knife possession to ensure robust police enforcement and early intervention to prevent young people carrying weapons." The ban on ninja swords is the first part of the government's manifesto commitment to introduce Ronan's Law, and latest step under the pledge to halve knife crime in the next decade. It comes after at least a thousand deadly weapons were handed in following the country's largest weapons surrender scheme. A knife amnesty bin (Image: TVP) Launched in June, the Home Office developed this scheme with members of the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime to provide a broader range of ways the public could surrender weapons outside of police stations. This saw Faron Paul, CEO of FazAmnesty, driving a custom built and fully secure surrender van, across London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, and Words4Weapons supplying 37 new surrender bins, all funded by the Home Office.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
'There's a lot of knife crime in London,' admits police minister after crackdown on muggers targeting pupils
Police minister Dame Diana Johnson admitted on Friday that 'there is a lot of knife crime in London'. She was highlighting a series of initiatives in knife crime hotspots across the country to reduce the number of offences. Asked to list the seven key areas, she told LBC Radio: 'We have got the Metropolitan Police obviously because there is a lot of knife crime in London.' She praised the force for action to stop pupils on their way to or from school from having their mobile phones stolen at knife point. The Home Office published data showing robberies involving a knife, or the threat of one, have fallen in most of the UK's high-risk areas. A dedicated police taskforce was set up last October on seven forces; the Met, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Avon and Somerset and British Transport Police. These areas had seen a steep rise in incidents between July 2023 and June 2024, accounting for 70% of knife-enabled robbery at the time. Drones, knife arches and detection dogs are among tactics used to bring down the number of incidents, with the forces also increasing visible patrols and the number of plain clothes officers on the streets. The West Midlands saw the largest drop, with a 25% reduction in incidents in the year to June 2025. The Met saw a two per cent fall but Greater Manchester saw a 4% increase. Separate figures published recently by the Office for National Statistics showed knife crime in London increased by nine per cent in the year to March, with the capital now accounting for almost a third of all knife attacks in England and Wales. A total of 16,344 knife crimes were recorded by the Met police and City of London police in the 12-month period, compared with 14,939 in the previous year. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the 6% overall annual reduction in knife-enabled robbery incidents in the seven areas was a direct result of targeted police action. 'The drop in knife-enabled robbery in key problem areas shows the impact that our strong new action on knife crime is having, but we now need to supercharge these efforts through more smart and targeted interventions,' she added. The Home Office said a 'surrender van', for knives, will be deployed at this year's Notting Hill Carnival. But shadow home secretary Chris Philp, MP for Croydon South, said knife crime was 'spiralling out of control' and accused Labour of not wanting to talk about offences in London and the "utter failure of Sadiq Khan to tackle crime". Meanwhie, a ban on ninja swords also comes into force on Friday, as the Government seeks to halve knife crime in a decade. At least a thousand of the weapons have been handed in as part of a surrender scheme. The Government has also pledged to tackle the sale of weapons online, as part of Ronan's Law, which was introduced following the death of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was murdered in Wolverhampton, in a case of mistaken identity, with a ninja sword bought online. This would require retailers to report bulk or suspicious knife orders to the police, put in place more stringent age-verification checks and impose significant fines on tech executives whose platforms fail to prevent illegal sales. Ronan's mother Pooja Kanda, said: 'Ronan was just 16 years old when his life was stolen by a 22-inch ninja sword that should never have been so easy to buy. Ronan's Law is not only a step towards justice for my son, but for every parent who wants to see their child come home safely.'