MEMPHIS, Tenn. – – A 59-year-old man has been sentenced to 33 years in prison in the shooting death of a woman during an altercation at a South Memphis nightspot in 2018.
A Criminal Court jury in October convicted Ricky Hunter on counts of second-degree murder and convicted felon in possession of a handgun. Judge John Campbell sentenced him this month to 25 years without parole on the murder conviction and eight years for the handgun conviction.
The shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. on July 3, 2018, at Brenda’s Rhythm & Blues Club on Walker Avenue near South Bellevue Boulevard.
Witnesses said Hunter got into an argument with Carolyn Thomas and then punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground. She got up and threw a beer bottle at him. The bottle missed him, but Hunter pulled a handgun and shot her in the shoulder.
Witnesses said Hunter stood over her and pulled the trigger again, but the gun did not fire. “I could have killed her and then she would know who she is f***ing with,” Hunter reportedly said.
They said he then left the bar, laughing as he walked out. Thomas, 48, was taken to a hospital where she died several hours later.
Hunter is was convicted in 1998 in Florida of sexual battery with a deadly weapon involving a family member, and was on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry.
