MEMPHIS, TN – Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Friday that a Memphis man pleaded guilty to shooting and killing two victims, then setting their bodies on fire inside a pick-up truck parked on a dead end street in a Frayser neighborhood.
Deandre Wright, 28, pleaded guilty as indicted to two counts of first degree murder. A judge then sentenced Wright to life without the possibility of parole on both counts.
Around noon on July 28, 2006, Memphis fire fighters received a call of a pick-up truck on fire on Sharon Lane. After extinguishing the flames, fire fighters discovered two bodies inside the vehicle. The bodies were identified as Phylicia Kelly, 15, and Joshua Giles, 21. The medical examiner ruled that both victims died from gunshot wounds.
Homicide detectives in the Memphis Police Department determined that Wright lured the victims to a house on Lee Cove earlier that morning. Giles drove Kelly to the home in a pick-up truck. Once there, Giles entered the home and Wright shot him. Kelly was then taken inside the house where Wright physically assaulted her and threatened her with death. Wright then took Giles’ body, stuffed into two garbage bags, and placed it in the bed of the pick-up truck. Kelly was ordered to sit behind the driver’s seat. The truck was driven to Sharon Lane where Wright shot Kelly in the back of the head, then doused the truck with gasoline before setting it on fire.
A state grand jury indicted Wright for the murders in August 2006. Two co-defendants, Anthony McDonald and Terrance Boyd, await trial on the same charges.
The charge of first degree murder is covered under the D.A.’s “No Deals” policy on violent crimes. Exceptions are made to the policy for legal and ethical reasons.
Assistant District Attorneys Reginald Henderson and Ray Lepone prosecuted this case, which was assigned to the D.A.’s Gang and Narcotics Prosecution Unit. |