MEMPHIS, Tenn. — UPDATE 10/26/2020 - A third person has been charged with murder and abuse of a corpse after investigators said a man was lured to a home then shot and killed for $20.
Albert Johnson was being interviewed in an unrelated case October 21 when police said he admitted to being in the home when Baba Said was killed.
According to the police affidavit, Jalen Braden, who is also indicted in the murder, told investigators Johnson gave him the gun that he then used to kill Said before taking two $10 bills from the victim's pocket.
Police said Johnson admitted to helping Braden put Said into garbage bags, putting the body in the trunk of the victim's vehicle, then dumping Said's body in a drainage ditch. They said Johnson also admitted helping Braden move a bloody couch where Said had been shot to the curb of the home.
Johnson is charged with first degree murder, especially aggravated robbery, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. He is in jail on $15,000 bond.
Breanna Williams, who was 15 at the time, is also indicted in the murder.
--------------------------------------------
7/2/2020 - A Memphis man and a teenage girl were indicted Wednesday on first-degree murder and other charges in an alleged scheme in which the victim was lured to a home where he was robbed and shot, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.
A grand jury also indicted Jalen Braden, 26, and Breanna Williams, 17, on felony charges of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Investigators said that on July 3, 2019, Williams, then 15, invited 20-year-old Baba Said to a house in the 1400 block of Amarillo St. near Kimball and Semmes. When he arrived, however, Braden confronted him with a gun, robbed him of $20 and shot him in the back of the head.
Braden and Williams then wrapped the victim’s body in plastic bags, placed it in trunk of his car and disposed of it in a drainage ditch near Park and Getwell. Said’s car was found on the interstate the following day, prompting a missing-person search for Said.
A GPS ping from Said’s phone led searchers to the area of the Amarillo residence where several days later investigators saw a sofa on the curb with a large blood stain. More blood was found in Braden’s house, and he eventually gave police a statement of is involvement.
Said’s body was discovered by a boater three months later near a marina at Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Park.
The case is being handled by Chief Prosecutor David Zak and Felony Assistant Paige Munn of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 6 which handles cases in General Sessions Division 15 and in Criminal Court Division 10.
