CRIME

Man charged in fatal shooting at Parkway Village motel

Yolanda Jones
yolanda.jones@commercialappeal.com
Joshua Winters

A 19-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting and robbery of a man at a Parkway Village motel last week.

Joshua Winters has been charged with first-degree murder in the perpetration of robbery and attempted first-degree murder in the perpetration of robbery.

Winters was booked in the Shelby County Jail a day after the shooting at America's Best Inn in the 3800 block of American Way.

Police responded to the shooting call at 12:40 p.m. last Thursday. They found Carlton Snipes, 22, unresponsive in the bed at the motel. He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead on the scene.

Officers also found Kydarion Hassell, 24, in the bathroom with a gunshot wound to his leg, according to the arrest affidavit. Hassell was taken to Methodist University hospital.

Police said the motel's surveillance videos showed two men enter the room and then leave in a Dodge Ram pickup truck.

The owner of the truck was interviewed by police and told investigators that his step-son, Joshua Winters, had been driving the truck for the last few days.

Hassell, the man shot in the leg, identified Winters from a police photo lineup as the man that stood over him in the bathroom with a gun in his face and told him to be quiet.

Winters turned himself in to police. He told investigators that he went to the motel with another man to buy marijuana. He said during the transaction, the other man started shooting, according to the affidavit.

He said he took a gun belonging to the man shot and killed while the other man took marijuana, digital scales and several pill bottles from the room. He said he and the other man then drove away. He dropped the man off and then went home.

No one else has been arrested in the shooting. Winters remains in jail on no bond.