Overview
- Police say a 20‑year‑old man, Rodderius Morton, was found shot dead on the front porch of Kendra Scott’s Memphis home in the early hours of July 16 after he was discovered hiding under her teen daughter’s bed.
- Scott, 36, was arrested and charged with first‑degree murder and a firearms offense and is being held in Shelby County Jail without bond pending a Monday court appearance.
- The arrest affidavit records Scott telling officers she “saw a dude under my kids’ bed, and I did what I had to do,” and it says the daughter had let the man into the house around 1 a.m.
- Investigators recovered a Smith & Wesson handgun and one spent shell casing on the front porch and recorded neighbor and daughter statements about Scott banging on the door, finding the man, and the single gunshot heard outside.
- Legal experts say the key questions will be whether Morton posed an immediate threat and whether the facts fit Tennessee’s Castle Doctrine, and prosecutors will use the affidavit, witness accounts and forensics in pretrial review.