MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The first criminal verdict for a death inside the Shelby County Jail in the current era of scrutiny came back split.

A Shelby County Criminal Court jury on Wednesday, August 19, 2026 convicted former deputy Courtney Parham of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in the October 2022 death of Gershun Freeman, acquitting him of the second-degree murder charge the state brought, per Action News 5 and FOX13. The same jury found former deputy Stevon Jones not guilty on all three counts. "Mr. Jones, the jury has found you not guilty of all three counts, you are discharged, sir," Judge Chris Craft told him, per FOX13.

The 901 Report covered the trial from its opening, when nine deputies stood charged in Freeman's death, and the testimony of the highest-ranking officer on duty that day, who graded his own team one out of ten and said he did not think CPR had started when he arrived.

Freeman, 33, died October 5, 2022 during a physical altercation with deputies at the jail at 201 Poplar, per Action News 5. He was experiencing a mental health crisis, and the medical examiner classified the death as a homicide. Prosecutor Amy Hunter of the Davidson County District Attorney's office, which tried the case, argued Freeman survived the initial restraint and "died after all of that." Defense attorneys argued the state failed to prove the deputies' actions directly caused the death beyond a reasonable doubt.

Criminally negligent homicide is a Class E felony, the lowest felony grade in Tennessee law, carrying one to two years, per Action News 5. Parham's sentencing is set for September 25, 2026, and his attorneys, Lauren Massey Fuchs and William Massey, said they will seek alternative sentencing and that they "stand by Courtney that he was not guilty." Jones's attorney Jack Irvine called the case "a tragedy all the way around" and said of the verdict: "We are obviously thrilled at the jury's verdict. It does not erase the past four years that Stevon Jones has had to go through."

Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk said convictions in custody deaths are "exceedingly rare," per Action News 5.

The verdict does not close the case; it opens the rest of it. Nine deputies were indicted in Freeman's death in all, two on murder charges and seven on assault charges, and the seven co-defendants have trials set for later dates, per Action News 5 and FOX13. Those seven are accused, not convicted, and each is presumed innocent unless and until a jury finds otherwise. Action News 5 also reports both Parham and Jones remained on the Shelby County Sheriff's Office payroll through trial, a status the conviction now puts squarely before the Sheriff's Office.

Freeman's family answered the split verdict with grief and anger. "They stomped my baby to death," his father George Burks said, per FOX13. His mother Kimberly Freeman said, per Action News 5: "To try and get justice and grieve at the same time, it's not for the weak."

Why It Matters for Memphis

A jury has now said, on the record, that a deputy's criminal negligence killed a man inside 201 Poplar. That finding lands while the jail's replacement debate, its budget fights, and its in-custody death record are all live public questions. The county has approved more than $58 million for the jail since 2024 and still had not ordered an engineering assessment when The 901 Report last checked, and the verdict sets the baseline for seven more trials arising from the same death.

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