Memphis Mother Says 'I Did What I Had To Do' After Fatally Shooting Man She Found Under Her Daughter's Bed

A Memphis mother who came home at nearly two in the morning to find a 20-year-old man concealed beneath her 13-year-old daughter's bed now faces a first-degree murder charge, and the question of whether she was defending her child or executing a fleeing man will be settled in a Shelby County courtroom.

Kendra Scott, 36, told police she 'did what I had to do' after the shooting in the Walker Homes neighbourhood in the early hours of Thursday 16 July. Officers found Rodderius Morton dead in her front garden with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, a detail that sits at the centre of the prosecution case.

A judge set her bond at £74,600 ($100,000) on Monday, and her lawyer has already signalled that the defence will contest whether anything about the night amounted to premeditation.

An Affidavit Account That Begins With an Invitation and Ends on the Porch

The sequence police have set out is unusually detailed for so early a stage. According to the affidavit, Morton entered the house through the back door at around 1am after being invited in by the child, and Scott arrived roughly half an hour later.

Investigators say Scott began knocking loudly at the front door and shouting 'Who's at my house?' before being let inside, where she allegedly found Morton concealed beneath the bed. The juvenile witness told officers that Scott ordered him out of the property, and that the fatal shot came as he was leaving rather than while he was hidden, according to the Memphis Police Department account.

The physical evidence tracks that account. Officers recovered a single spent casing on the front porch and a black Smith and Wesson handgun, and found Morton's body in the front garden. A neighbour told police he came outside to see Scott standing over the body still holding the weapon and saying, 'I shot him, I shot him.'

Why the Location of the Shot Decides the Case

Tennessee law gives householders wide latitude to use lethal force against intruders, but that protection is anchored to an imminent threat inside the home. Legal analysts reviewing the charge have noted that the affidavit does not allege Morton threatened Scott or anyone else at the moment he was shot, and that this omission is likely to become the decisive issue for a jury.

A wound to the back of the head, a casing on the porch and a body in the garden together describe a man moving away from the house rather than towards its occupants. Prosecutors have charged accordingly, adding a count of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, which in Tennessee carries a mandatory consecutive sentence on conviction.

One further element of the affidavit cuts against the defence. The child told investigators she had been frightened of her mother's reaction because Scott had previously warned she would shoot any boy found at the house, a statement prosecutors may use to argue intent formed long before the encounter. Scott is presumed innocent, has entered no plea, and none of the allegations has been tested in court.

Scott's attorney, Blake Ballin, has framed the case as a tragedy born of panic. 'This incident started with the worst nightmare of any parent of a 13-year-old girl,' he said, adding that 'predictably, it ended in tragedy.'

His argument is that the charge overreaches rather than that the shooting never happened. 'The real question is, is this first-degree premeditated murder?' Ballin told NewsNation, raising voluntary manslaughter, a lesser homicide offence under Tennessee law, as an alternative alongside self-defence.

A Neighbourhood Divided Over What It Would Have Done

Walker Homes residents have split over the case in terms that mirror the legal argument. 'She seemed like a real nice lady,' neighbour Gloria Milon told WMC. 'All I can say is, that hurts that someone was in there with one of her little girls.'

Others were less forgiving of the decision to fire. One neighbour, who asked not to be identified, told the station she would have called police from the driveway and waited for officers rather than confronting anyone alone, a course that would have ended the night with an arrest rather than a death.

What actually happened inside the bedroom has not been detailed in the publicly reported affidavit, which does not allege sexual conduct, and the child is a minor whose account will be handled through the courts rather than the press. Scott has been ordered to stay away from Morton's family and is due back before a judge on 3 August.

A mother's worst fear, a young man's last thirty seconds and a single casing on a porch floor will now be weighed against each other, and Tennessee law cares less about the fear than about which direction he was walking.