The sentence closes the Shelby County murder case against Jackson Hopper.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man who killed his former girlfriend after following her into a Shelby Farms Park charity walk parking lot will serve 40 years in prison under a plea deal accepted in Shelby County court.
The sentence came nearly 18 months after Ellie Claire Young, 22, was shot near her Jeep at the Visitor Center lot during a breast cancer fundraiser. Jackson Hopper pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after originally facing a first-degree murder charge. The plea changed the course of the case from a July trial to a fixed prison term, while leaving other criminal charges and a civil lawsuit unresolved.
Young had gone to Shelby Farms Park on Oct. 19, 2024, for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. The event drew volunteers and participants to one of the region’s largest public parks. By early afternoon, the parking lot had become the focus of an emergency response. Deputies were sent to the Visitor Center at 12:15 p.m. and found Young on the ground beside her Jeep Wrangler. She had been shot multiple times. Medics pronounced her dead at 12:36 p.m.
Investigators later pieced together the moments before the shooting through cameras, witness accounts and physical evidence. A license plate reader showed Young’s Jeep entering the park at 12:11 p.m. A white Honda CR-V with a temporary Kentucky plate followed seconds behind it. Authorities said Hopper was driving the SUV. Witnesses said the Honda pulled behind Young’s Jeep after she parked. The vehicle blocked her, and Hopper fired into the back of the Jeep, according to the affidavit. When Young got out, investigators said, more shots were fired.
Prosecutors said the evidence showed an ambush, not a chance meeting. Chief Prosecutor Monica Timmerman said the sentence could not equal the loss of Young’s life but allowed the family to move beyond the criminal case. Family attorney Mark S. McDaniel Jr. said in court that Young would have made an extraordinary physician and that the world would have been better if she were still alive. He also said the plea spared her relatives from the painful details that would have been presented at trial.
Young was a medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Family members described her as someone who brightened rooms and wanted a life in medicine. She was participating in a public event tied to breast cancer awareness, an effort built around survivors, families, patients and volunteers. Her death placed a domestic violence case at the center of a community health gathering and changed how many people remembered that Saturday at Shelby Farms.
The court record shows the relationship between Young and Hopper had ended shortly before the shooting. Family members told deputies the two had recently broken up. Later reports said the breakup followed concerns about physical abuse. The legal file did not turn the sentencing into a full trial of the relationship, because Hopper’s plea removed the need for jurors to hear the state’s case. Still, the breakup was part of the official account of motive and context. Authorities have not said that anyone else was involved in the shooting.
After Young was killed, Hopper left the park and was later found in Mason, Tennessee, authorities said. What followed stretched the case beyond Shelby County. Officers pursued him through multiple counties, with law enforcement officials saying he drove into oncoming traffic and tried to hit officers. The chase ended after a crash. The pursuit brought charges in Tipton, Lauderdale and Dyer counties, including aggravated assault, evading arrest, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, speeding and assault on a first responder. Those charges remain separate from the murder sentence.
The arrest itself also became part of the broader record. Video that circulated after the crash showed officers ordering Hopper to show his hands as he emerged from the vehicle. Officials said the situation involved an armed murder suspect who had led police on a dangerous chase. At the same time, agencies involved in the arrest opened internal reviews after questions were raised about officer conduct. Local reporting later said several officers were charged with official misconduct. Those reviews were separate from the Shelby County murder case.
In court, Judge Carlyn Addison spoke to Young’s relatives in direct terms. She said she was sorry for their loss and accepted the plea so they could leave the courthouse without returning for a murder trial. The judge said she had asked the family for grace and patience earlier in the case. Hopper had turned down a plea offer in February before accepting the April agreement. The shift ended the uncertainty of a trial date and set the sentence at 40 years in a state correctional facility.
Young’s family has also sued Hopper and his mother in a wrongful death case. The lawsuit seeks $10 million and punitive damages. It had been paused while the criminal case moved through court. With Hopper now sentenced in Shelby County, that civil case can move into its next phase. The civil filing gives the family a second legal track, separate from the prison sentence, to pursue claims tied to Young’s death and any alleged responsibility beyond Hopper’s admitted crime.
Hopper’s guilty plea resolved the central murder charge but did not close the full legal record. The remaining county cases from the chase and the wrongful death lawsuit are the next steps, while the 40-year sentence stands as the punishment for Young’s killing at Shelby Farms Park.
Author note: Last updated May 8, 2026.