At about 9:30 p.m. on November 10, 2001, 23-year-old Kimberly Lambert got into her two-door Ford Explorer after leaving work at a Pier 1 Imports store in Memphis, Tennessee. She planned to meet friends at a restaurant. When she got into the car, she noticed a strong odor, like body odor, and the smell of hair grease. She looked in the back seat, but saw nothing. She did not check the rear storage area.
Before meeting her friend, she stopped at a video store. When she returned and got into the driver’s seat, a knife came from the back seat to her throat and a hand grabbed her ponytail. A man told her not to move, that he wanted her car, and she needed to follow his directions to drive him elsewhere.
In the process of giving directions, the man moved the knife from her throat and with her free hand, she grabbed the wrist that held the knife and shoved it back. She later said she felt the knife strike something and the man yelled, “You stabbed me! You cut me!”
He held her ponytail and ordered to keep driving. Ultimately, she was told to park in a dark area of a neighborhood. The man demanded money and credit cards – everything she had. Lambert put her credit cards on the center console. When the man moved the knife to pick up the credit cards, Lambert bailed out. She tried to run, but the man caught her, knocked her to her knees next to the vehicle, and tried to stab her.
Lambert tried to block the knife and was pushed to the ground on her back. The man put his foot on her chest, and as he tried to stab her, she grabbed the blade with her hands. She managed to get the knife away, but he punched her in the face, and then fled. Lambert sought help from a neighbor and police were called.
She said the attacker was a “young to middle-aged black guy with a light complexion” wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and a ball cap.
On November 12, 2001, Memphis Police Sgt. Ralph Peperone received a notice from a patrol officer that a person who resembled the description and had a strong body odor had been taken to The Med hospital in the early morning hours of November 11 – several hours after the attack on Lambert. They found 35-year-old Darren Price in the trauma intensive care unit. Price was being treated for broken ribs and other injuries.
Sgt. Peperone concluded that Price was a “likely suspect” based on his body odor. Sgt. Peperone returned to his office and prepared a computer-generated photographic lineup. Lambert came to the police station to view the lineup. She identified Price as her attacker. Price was arrested on November 13, 2001.
On April 4, 2001, a Shelby County grand jury indicted Price (he was charged as Darron Price) on charges of attempted first-degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated robbery.
After a jury was selected on January 28, 2003, but before the presentation of evidence, the trial judge held a hearing on a defense motion to suppress the identification. Price’s defense attorney did not challenge the choice to include three men in the lineup with markedly different complexions than Price. Nor did he argue that the lineup was flawed because Sgt. Peperone assembled it based on his viewing of Price at the hospital rather than Lambert’s description. The motion to suppress the identification was denied.
Lambert testified about the attack and identified Price as her attacker. She also identified the knife used in the attack. She said she had held onto it until the police had arrived. Lambert donned gloves and picked up the knife. She showed the jury how it was held against her neck. She identified her credit cards, which were found outside her car, as well as an earring that had fallen out of her ear during the attack. She was shown a black t-shirt that was found in the rear storage area of the car, and testified that it was not hers and was not in the car prior to the attack. Lambert said she needed 16 stitches to close her wounds.
Robert Williams testified that he was at his home on the night of the attack, and saw a SUV pull up at night in front of a nearby vacant home on the dead-end street. He said he saw a white woman and a man engaged in a fight near the car. He said that when he went outside and yelled, the man ran toward him before cutting across a yard to get away. He said that “the guy was beating on the young lady pretty violently.” Williams said the attacker had a light complexion – so light that he first thought the man was white. Williams was unable to identify Price as the attacker.
Sgt. Peperone was allowed, over defense objection, to testify that he believed, based on his observation of Price, that Lambert had inflicted the injuries on Price. The trial judge, however, ruled that the defense could not question Sgt. Peperone about his conversation with Price during which Price explained how and where he had been injured.
Sgt. Price testified that about 75 percent of people make an identification from a photo lineup of six people. He said that Lambert picked Price “virtually immediately.”
He testified that fingerprints were lifted from the driver’s door handle as well as the rearview mirror. He said the prints were compared to Price and did not match. The knife was not examined for fingerprints, he said. The defense did not seek to enter the fingerprint report into evidence, although it supported Price’s claim of innocence.
Before the defense began presenting evidence, Price’s attorney told the trial judge that he had investigated Price’s alibi and did not believe Price.
Price had contended that at about the time of the crime, he was with Darrell Jarrett, who was being arrested. In the early morning hours of November 11, 2001, after Jarrett was released on bond, Jarrett and another man tracked down Price and savagely beat him because Jarrett believed Price was responsible for Jarrett’s arrest.
However, Price’s attorney contended that he believed Price had told him that Price had been arrested, not Jarrett. Based on that belief, the attorney thought Price was lying.
As a result, Price took the witness stand and testified in a narrative without the defense attorney asking any questions. Price said that he had five broken ribs and a bruised spleen (it actually was lacerated) because of the assault by Jarrett and the other man.
Price said that on the night of November 10, he was hanging out on Baltic Street near his home. Jarrett was there, as well as Jarrett’s cousin, Dion, and Jarrett’s uncle, Marvin. Price said that a police car pulled up and said they had received a call of suspicious people. They wanted to search everyone.
One officer searched the backyard while Price and Jarrett remained out front. After the officers left, Price went to a nearby convenience store. When he returned, Jarrett was in the back of the police car, under arrest for possession of marijuana and a firearm. Price said that the marijuana and gun actually belonged to Dion, and that he tried to persuade Dion to take the arrest instead of Jarrett. Dion declined, Price said.
Price testified that after Jarrett was released on bond, he and Keiver Mitchell found Price and assaulted him. He said he told Sgt. Peperone at the hospital that he wanted to press charges against Jarrett. Price testified that when Peperone told him he was being arrested, he laughed and denied knowing anything about the crime.
During cross-examination, Price admitted he had prior convictions for possession of drugs and a firearm.
Sgt. Peperone testified in rebuttal that Jarrett was arrested at 8:45 p.m. and was in jail at 10:30 p.m., where he remained until he was released on bond at 3 a.m. According to Sgt. Peperone, Price did not want to press charges against Jarrett.
On January 30, 2003, the jury convicted Price of attempted first-degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to 49 years in prison.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions in 2005. Over the next 15 years Price sought post-conviction relief based on his argument that his trial defense attorney had failed to call alibi witnesses. In January 2020, Price was released on parole.
In 2021, the Tennessee Innocence Project (TIP) filed a motion for DNA testing and fingerprint analysis. This was denied in February 2022.
In March 2022, Price’s TIP lawyers, Jessica Van Dyke and Jason Gichner, as well as attorneys Andre Mathis and Ashleigh Karnell, filed a petition for a writ of coram nobis, seeking to vacate Price’s convictions.
In September 2022, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy agreed to the DNA testing and fingerprint analysis.
Ultimately, a hearing was held on the petition during which Price’s legal team presented DNA test results that identified a male profile on the t-shirt that excluded Price as the source of the DNA on the shirt. DNA testing of the knife did not provide any conclusive result.
In addition, four witnesses testified, including Jarrett and Mitchell. Jarrett testified that he was arrested at about 9:45 p.m. – about the same time Lambert was attacked – and that Price was there. Jarrett and Keiver both testified that after Jarrett was released on bond at about 3 a.m., they found Price and viciously assaulted him.
Kevin Franklin testified that he was present when Jarrett was arrested, and that Price was there. Franklin said he remained there for about an hour after Jarrett was arrested and that Price remained there after Jarrett was driven away in the police car.
Monica Eddings testified that she also was present when Jarrett was arrested, and that Price was there at that time.
On November 22, 2024, Shelby County Circuit Court Judge James Jones Jr. granted the petition, vacated Price’s convictions, and ordered a new trial.
“[T]his Court finds the newly discovered evidence of the DNA results and the testimony of the four alibi witnesses is overwhelming in favor of [Price],” the judge ruled.
On January 17, 2025, the prosecution dismissed the charges.
– Maurice PossleyPosting Date: 05-05-2025
Last Update Date: 05-05-2025
