April 25, 2025 - A Shelby County Jury sought a 20-year sentence for Kendell Mardis after hearing testimony April 23-24, 2025, in the 123rd Judicial District Court with Judge LeAnn K. Rafferty Presiding in the case of Kendell Mardis involving the death of Camo Morton on July 2023.
Before trial Mardis pled guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter, and what remained was to decide what sort of punishment Mardis is to receive. He faced the possibility of 2-20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 or 10 years of probation.
Jury selection began on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, and trial began on Wednesday finally coming to conclusion on Thursday night before 8pm. At around 6:15pm the jury began deliberation and they returned with a verdict at 7:40pm.
The verdict was unanimous and Mardis was sentenced to 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Inmate Division.
In addition to Mardis, two other individuals have been charged with the murder of Camo Morton and they are Denim Smith and Madisyn Ramsey.
The jury heard testimony from the younger sister of Ramsey, who was age 11 at the time of the incident, and who was present at Morton’s house. She recounted riding with her sister in a vehicle to pick up Kendell Mardis on the way to Morton’s house, where they were not supposed to be for some reason, and being in the house when the shotgun was fired. It was her testimony that everyone at the house, with the exception of herself, was smoking marijuana behind the house.
She testified she was in the hallway between the home’s living room and Morton’s bedroom when the fatal shot was fired.
Ramsey’s sister recalled Madisyn wouldn’t let her back to the bedroom to see what had happened, and that when Madisyn asked if she needed to call 911, Mardis and Denim Smith said “y’all just need to leave.” Ramsey’s sister said she didn’t know Morton had been shot until she returned home with her sister.
Madisyn Ramsey was called to the stand following her sister and, with the exception of answering that she was 18 years old, she pled the 5th amendment on the advise of council on every other question from the prosecution and the defense.
Denim Smith testified he met his friend Camo in theatre class at school, and that they were inseparable. During the Summer that Camo Morton was killed, Smith testified he was living at Morton’s house day and night.
Smith testified he had been outside of the house when he entered the bedroom to find Mardis and Morton looking at guns in Morton’s bedroom and that Mardis was holding a shotgun pointed toward the ceiling when Smith turned to power on a video game system in the bedroom and he heard a click just before the shotgun blast. He testified to turning around to see Morton going down and Mardis throwing the shotgun on Morton’s bed before panicking and running out of the room. Smith said that he could hear the blood leaving Camo Morton, and he said his name three different times before he left the room.
Several factors became points of contention for law enforcement, and subsequently for the prosecution, including stories that seemed to change, the position of the shotgun, where people were located in the room, how many people were actually in the house, how the shotgun was discharged, and how much time took place between the shooting and the call to 911.
David Haley, a former investigator with the Sheriff’s Department, was tasked with investigating the incident and he testified to the nature of shotgun wounds in his experience and the amount of devastation that is usually incurred from a shotgun blast. At first glance, that devastation wasn’t visibly apparent with Morton. During Haley’s testimony, it was learned from the medical examiner’s report that Morton had been shot in a downward position as the trajectory of the shot resulted in an internal combustion injury going through his head on the left side and into his throat which caused a cervical spinal cord transection.
This evidence contradicted the initial claim of Smith and Mardis, who later changed his statement to indicate he was holding the shotgun in a more horizontal position while seated, which according to Haley and later in the trial Investigator D.J. Dickerson was not conducive either to the trajectory of Morton’s wound. There also was a suggestion from Mardis that Morton had struck the back of the shotgun while in front of the barrel and caused it go off.
Investigator Dickerson and Stephanie Stroud, Assistant District Attorney, demonstrated the angle that they deemed most likely by Stroud getting to her knees and Dickerson placing the shotgun barrel near her head by about an inch. Although different in build from Mardis, Dickerson is of similar stature at 6’3’, and this presented a clear illustration for the jury of a possible scenario in the shooting of Morton that appeared more likely than the claims offered by Mardis and Smith.
The prosecution offered that Mardis disassociated himself from the shooting on the 911 call by initially stating in the third person that "somebody got shot," rather than saying he had shot his friend.
During testimony, the jury learned of there being several guns in the home, and repeatedly heard testimony over the responsible nature of Camo Morton involving guns due to his upbringing. The jury also heard that the kids at the house would smoke marijuana and vape out of the presence of their parents. Cheyanne Morton, the father of Camo, described the marijuana being kept from him the most, but that he found out about the vaping as a result of the school.
Cheyanne Morton testified to a time when he returned home and he found Smith and Mardis with guns while Camo was taking pictures of them. He questioned why the guns were out and Camo said he was about to clean them. Cheyanne asked if Camo had checked the guns and cleared them. He made them take all of the magazines out of the guns and the boys continued with their "photoshoot." The next day, Cheyanne had a gun safety course with Mardis, Smith and Camo.
Several character witnesses testified about Mardis and his being a "good kid," polite and very respectful, but also that he has been quieter and more withdrawn since the shooting. During the testimony of Tyrhonda Jones, Mardis' sister, she described finding a Snapchat photo located on Mardis' account that depicted Mardis and Morton holding guns pointed at one another, which Jones said "rubbed her wrong" and she would "fuss" at anyone over something like that.
Brittany Brown Milstead, licensed professional counselor and supervisor, testified on adolescent brain development, the impact of trauma on memory and the expression of grief following trauma. Milstead testified that it wouldn't be strange for someone to recount an event in the third person, because when a traumatic event occurs people don't know how to process information that doesn't align with how they view themselves or the world previous to that event.
During closing arguments, Stroud stated the police officers have begged and pleaded with those involved for the truth which continues to be shaded. She challenged the jurors that the only way they could recommend probation was if Morton's life was worth less than 10 years in prison.
Shires argued the prosecution had a constant focus on the position of the gun and treated the case like a murder trial when Mardis had already pled guilty to manslaughter and that he shot Camo Morton. He said Smith and Mardis made a poor choice in deciding not to tell law enforcement that Ramsey and her sister were at the house during the shooting.
After the trial had concluded, and the Shelby County Sheriff's Department took Mardis into custody, Cheyanne Morton was allowed to make a victim impact statement, and he stated as follows:
“You know Camo loved his friends with all his heart. He'd give you the shirt off his back. All the time, did nothing but care for y’all and to hear Denim say he could hear blood pumping out and y'all left him layin’ there, who does that? Why would you do that? Just throwed him away trying to protect somebody else. My family has cried and cried until we’re numb. I can't tell you, the impact of this has had on us. This has broken everything about us. I'm now a shell of a person without him. That baby meant everything to me, and y'all left him laying there on the floor without a second thought.
"Knowing everything he's always done for y'all, and I can't fathom that. I really can't. To me that's why you're getting the time you got, the way y'all did him. I pray for your family. But remember your life's not over. You can still make something of yourself. You can still do something. It's gonna be harder, but you can still do something with your life. He'll never get that chance. Now, and y’all took that from that baby. I just pray that your family can live with what y'all done. I pray for my family. It'll never be the same. This whole world will never be the same without him. Actions have consequences.”
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