On a Friday afternoon in August 2014, 27-year-old Dominique Thomas was shot and killed inside a friend’s home in the 1600 block of Patterson Street in Memphis. Someone opened fire into the house; a 15-year-old boy who was struck in the abdomen survived after surgery. Dominique was a mother of five children, ages one to twelve, and was remembered by family as a funny, outspoken and strong single mother devoted to her close-knit family.

Friends and relatives gathered at the scene the next day and left stuffed bears as an impromptu memorial. In September 2014, an indictment named Corderro Avant and a co-defendant, charging first-degree premeditated murder for Dominique’s death along with multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder and counts of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

A Shelby County jury later convicted Corderro Avant of first-degree murder in Dominique’s death, the attempted first-degree murder causing serious bodily injury to Jarvis Clayborn, nine other counts of attempted first-degree murder, and eleven counts of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.