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One of the men responsible for killing Young Dolph is accepting a plea deal in the rapper’s murder case.

Cornelius Smith, one of two shooters involved in the death of the Memphis rapper, appeared in court on February 12th.

According to Action News 5, Smith was set to accept the plea deal this week, but lawyers needed more time to discuss specific details.

Paul Hagerman, Shelby County deputy district attorney, said, “There is a guilty plea that has been arrived at. However, the attorneys have to get with the Department of Corrections regarding technicalities with regard to his confinement.”

Michael Scholl, Smith’s lawyer, added, “We were intending to go ahead and enter a guilty plea today when we went into court. There are a few details that we need to fix and iron out before we can do that. So, we asked the judge for additional time to complete those details.”

Smith is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and attempted first-degree murder. The man has admitted to his role in Dolph’s death and testified against Justin Johnson in September 2024.

“He’s ready to be done with the matter and move on with his life,” Scholl said. “We want to make sure everything’s done correctly and appropriately. So, he’s fine with whatever time we need to do to iron out what we need to iron out.”

Hernandez Govan, the man accused of masterminding his murder, was acquitted of all charges in August 2025.

Hagerman added, “That gives them a little bit of closure in regard to this defendant. The first trial, they got a little bit of closure, too, regarding Mr Johnson. The second trial with Mr Govan was hard for them to accept the result, but it is what the jury did.”

Dolph was killed in a drive-by shooting on November 21st, 2021, at the age of 36. He was shot 22 times and pronounced dead at the scene.