Shelby Co. DA’s 2025 report: Crime is down, but timetable to handle criminal cases is not

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Crime in Memphis and Shelby County is down, according to the newly-released annual report from the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. But the time it takes for a criminal case to work through the court system is not.

DA Steve Mulroy is pledging to improve that statistic.

The DA’s office told Action News 5 that the nine Shelby County Criminal Court judges held 59 trials last year. That’s up from 17 trials in 2020, 22 trials in 2021, and 35 trials in 2022, but still down from 118 trials held in 2018 and 96 trials in 2019.

According to the DA’s just-released 2025 Annual Justice in Action Report:

• Overall crime is down 16%.
• Violent crime is down 21%.
• Property crime is down 23%.

“We focused on the most serious violent crimes, pushing for significant sentences where appropriate,” said DA Mulroy.

The DA’s report shows that one-third of all cases handled in 2025, amounting to 12,900 cases, were felony crimes. The majority, more than 24,000 cases, were misdemeanors.

The report did not say how many felony charges were knocked down to lesser charges.

Of those serious crimes, aggravated assault accounted for 41% of the charges, firearms came in at 18%, domestic violence 17% and drug charges made up 16% of the cases.

Murder and rape charges accounted for less than 4% of all serious crime charges.

Prosecutors in the Shelby County DA’s Office handle high volumes of work. The report said the average caseload per courtroom prosecutor in 2025 was more than 1,100 cases.

The average time to resolve a case in criminal court took 704 days—nearly two years—something the DA pledged to improve.

The DA’s report also highlighted significant courtroom victories. Brandon Isabelle was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and two-day-old daughter and sentenced to 147 years in prison.

Ezekiel Kelly, the man who went on a deadly shooting spree across the city, pleaded guilty receiving three life sentences plus 221 years in prison.

And Latoshia Daniels was found guilty of shooting and killing a pastor and injuring his wife back in 2019. She will be sentenced this month.

“I’m proud of the prosecutors, victim/witness coordinators, criminal investigators, and other staff who work with dedication and professionalism on a sometimes thankless job,” the DA said, “They faithfully serve our only client - the people - and our only cause - justice.”

The DA also mentioned the work done by the justice review unit, looking at cases to correct wrongful convictions.

One case announced last month: Andrew Hayes was not responsible for the 2007 murder of Danny Harris.

A new suspect is charged in Harris’ murder and awaiting extradition to Shelby County.

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