Cornelius Smith faces the final reckoning in a case that’s dragged on for nearly five years, with his plea hearing now postponed to May after multiple delays.
The gunman who admitted to firing shots into Makeda’s Cookies on November 17, 2021, killing Memphis rapper Young Dolph, has been waiting in limbo while the legal system moves at a glacial pace.
Smith’s attorney confirmed the defendant and his team needed more time to address additional details before accepting the deal, leaving questions about what’s really holding up justice in a case where guilt has never been in question.
The delay feels almost cruel when you consider what Smith already testified to under oath.
He admitted he couldn’t even count how many times he shot Young Dolph, describing a scene of pure violence inside that cookie shop.
He identified himself and co-shooter Justin Johnson in surveillance video, confirmed they arrived in a stolen Mercedes-Benz, and laid out the entire operation with chilling detail.
Johnson was convicted in September 2024 and sentenced to life plus an additional 50 years. Yet Smith, who’s been cooperating with authorities and testifying against other defendants, still hasn’t resolved his own case.
What makes this even more complicated is the web of people involved.
Smith testified that Yo Gotti’s brother Big Jook put out a $100,000 dollar hit on Young Dolph in hopes of securing a recording deal with his CMG label.
Smith and Johnson were supposed to get $40,000 each, with the alleged mastermind, Hernandez Govan, receiving $20,000.
Smith received only $800 before his arrest. Govan was acquitted in August 2025 on all charges, which means the man prosecutors claimed orchestrated everything walked free.
Big Jook himself was killed in January 2024 in a separate shooting, and that case remains unsolved with no arrests made.
The feud between Young Dolph’s Paper Route Empire and Yo Gotti’s CMG goes back over a decade, with multiple shooting incidents along the way.
In 2017, more than 100 rounds were fired into Young Dolph’s bulletproof Corvette in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Later that year, he was shot outside the Loews Hollywood hotel in Los Angeles. Young Dolph survived both attacks, released his Bulletproof album, and kept pushing forward until that November day in 2021 when he was shot 22 times inside a cookie shop, according to local Memphis reporting.
Smith’s case represents the final piece of a puzzle that’s already been mostly solved, yet the system keeps delaying the moment when he officially accepts responsibility.
Jermarcus Johnson, Justin’s half-brother, already pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact in October 2023 and received probation and diversion.