Perry Hughes (Shelby County Jail)
A 34-year-old man in Tennessee was arrested for allegedly fatally shooting one of his roommates after arguing over $10 while celebrating a third roommate’s birthday. Perry Hughes was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with one count each of second-degree murder, being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, and tampering with evidence, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the Memphis Police Department at approximately 5:02 a.m. on March 14 responded to a call about a shooting inside of a residence located in the 1500 block of Prescott Street. Upon arriving at the scene, two people who lived in the residence approached the officers and said that their two other roommates — Hughes and a man identified in the document as Antonio — had gotten into an argument that ended with Hughes allegedly shooting Antonio multiple times.
The officers entered the residence and found Hughes “barricaded” in his bedroom, the affidavit states.
“After a short standoff, officers were able to talk Perry Hughes out of his room and placed him into custody,” police wrote. “Officers then located the victim inside a city trash bin upside down and covered in trash. The trash bin was inside Perry Hughes bedroom.”
Paramedics responded to the home and pronounced Antonio dead at the scene.
Police say they observed two handguns in “plain view” inside Hughes’ bedroom and noted that the floor of the hallway was wet and appeared to have “recently been mopped.”
Investigators quickly obtained a search warrant for the residence where they located multiple cartridge casings in the kitchen, three bullet holes in the kitchen and dining room walls, as well as blood in the hallway and on the baseboards, according to the affidavit. Police also say they found blood in a “swirl pattern” on the bathroom floor.
Inside Hughes’ bedroom, police allegedly found three guns — two 9 mm pistols and one 22-caliber handgun — as well as a mop with what appeared to be blood on the mop head in a bucket filled with what appeared to be bloody water.
Authorities removed Antonio’s body from the trash bin and noted that he had been shot “several times.”
Police learned that the previous evening, Hughes wanted to celebrate the birthday of one of the roommates who was not involved in the shooting by drinking and playing dominos, according to the affidavit. The two other roommates told police that as the night progressed, Hughes and Antonio both “became intoxicated and began to argue over $10.”
The argument escalated and became physical and both men allegedly ended up pointing weapons at each other before Antonio “put up his weapon” and said he “wanted to fight Hughes,” the roommates allegedly told police.
“[A roommate] stated that Antonio then moved to hit Hughes and that Hughes fired one shot that missed,” the affidavit states. “[The roommate] then stated that Hughes then fired another shot which he believed struck Antonio who then covered his face and turned as if to run away. [The roommate] then advised that is when Hughes ‘unloaded on’ Antonio.
Hughes — who was convicted of felony aggravated assault in 2014 — was booked into the Shelby County Jail on March 15 and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
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