Madison Jones

A summer celebration in Memphis, Tennessee, turned into a scene of unimaginable tragedy on July 7, 2021. Madison Alescya Jones, an 11-year-old African American girl, was attending a sleepover birthday party for a friend at an apartment on Nash Drive in southeast Shelby County. The joyful occasion would soon be shattered by a fatal accident.

The party was for the daughter of Rakasha Sims, the 30-year-old resident of the apartment. During the gathering, five children were left alone and unsupervised in the home: Sims’s daughter, her 4-year-old son, and three friends, including Madison. While looking for silverware in the kitchen, one of the girls discovered a loaded pistol inside a drawer.

According to investigators with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, the girls began passing the gun around. As one of them was attempting to put the firearm back in the drawer, it accidentally discharged. The single shot struck Madison in the head, fatally wounding her.

Following an investigation into the shooting, a grand jury indicted Rakasha Sims. She was charged with criminally negligent homicide, two counts of aggravated child neglect, and one count of aggravated parental or custodial child endangerment. Sims was subsequently held on a $65,000 bond.

The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office announced the indictment in January 2022. The case was assigned to the DA's Special Victims Unit, which prosecutes cases involving severe abuse of child victims, and was proceeding through the legal system.