A Memphis man has been sentenced to life without parole after a Tipton County jury convicted him in the 2021 shooting that killed one Covington woman and wounded another as they drove home from a Covington High School football game.
Treon Ingram, 27, was found guilty Sept. 4 in Tipton County Circuit Court, according to the Covington Police Department, of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
What happened
The shooting happened the night of Nov. 12, 2021, at the intersection of Church and South College streets, near First United Methodist Church. Three vehicles had stopped at a stop sign following the Covington-Ripley football game when a white Mercedes pulled alongside a vehicle carrying Darnisha Wynn-McLeod and her boyfriend’s mother, Anita Wilson.
Two masked suspects got out and opened fire with assault-style rifles, critically injuring the women. Investigators recovered nearly 40 shell casings at the scene.
Both women were airlifted to Regional One Medical Center in Memphis, where Wilson was reported at the time to be paralyzed. Wynn-McLeod survived her injuries and was later listed in stable condition.
Wilson, 57, died Nov. 18, 2021.
Anita was survived by five children: Laquita Cunningham, Laurita Wilson Cleaves, Allison Bailey, James Bailey and Jamie Wilson; and siblings Layne Burnett Branch, Anne Ruggs, Helen Terry, Tasha Holmes, Terry Wilson, Tom Burnett Jr., Richard Burnett, Steve Burnett, Daniel Wilson, Tim Burnett, and Joseph Burnett. At the time of her death, she had 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
She was buried at Townsend Cemetery in north Covington.
Initially, some worried the shooting was related to football game, but days later investigators shared the shooting seemed to be connected to the murder of Memphis rapper Adolph “Young Dolph” Thornton Jr. in Memphis.
The Young Dolph connection
Young Dolph was shot and killed on Nov. 17, 2021, outside Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in Memphis. Surveillance footage showed a white Mercedes as the getaway vehicle in that murder as well, and Memphis police found the car abandoned behind a house in the city’s Orange Mound neighborhood.
Then-Covington Police Capt. Jack Howell said at the time that investigators believed the same vehicle was used in both shootings, a connection also noted in a Memphis police report.
Ingram was taken into custody within days in Southaven, Miss. According to news coverage from 2022, he was being held at the DeSoto County Detention Center on unrelated charges when investigators determined he had the firearm used in the Covington shooting.
He was indicted in July 2022 on charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and two weapons counts. His case was held pending resolution of separate criminal proceedings against him in Shelby County and DeSoto County, Miss.
Investigators have said the white Mercedes was carjacked by Ingram in Mississippi weeks before Young Dolph’s killing. His fingerprints were found in the vehicle, and his DNA was recovered from a tube of lip balm inside it, according to testimony at the 2024 murder trial of Justin Johnson, who was later convicted of killing Young Dolph.
That testimony also showed Ingram exchanged the Mercedes for an Infiniti with at a Memphis gas station hours before Young Dolph was killed, and that cellphone records showed contact between Ingram and Johnson in the hours beforehand. Ingram was not charged in Young Dolph’s murder.
After the trial
In public Facebook posts, members of Anita’s family have expressed gratitude for the conviction and say they are looking forward to being able to finally grieve her properly.
In a statement following Ingram’s conviction, Covington Police Chief Turner thanked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s West Tennessee Region digital forensics personnel and criminal analysts, the Covington Police Department’s own criminal analysts, the Memphis and Southaven police departments and the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office for their work on the case. She singled out Lt. Tony Doss, who leads the department’s Criminal Investigation Division and served as lead case agent, and separately credited Assistant District Attorneys General Sean Hord and Jason Poyner of the 25th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
“Anita Wilson went to a high school football game to cheer for a young man she loved like a grandson, and she never made it home,” said District Attorney General Mark Davidson. “This verdict is the result of relentless work by the Covington Police Department and the agencies that stood with them. We are grateful to this jury for holding the defendant fully accountable, and our thoughts remain with Ms. Wilson’s family and with Ms. Wynn-McLeod, whose courage on the witness stand this jury will not forget.”
