Long before Joshua Zimmerman escaped custody from the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando earlier this month — igniting a multi-agency manhunt and accusations from the district attorney’s office of a cover-up — he was already wanted by law enforcement agencies from Connecticut to Texas. 

Most notably, Zimmerman is sought by authorities in Houston for a 2023 murder. According to a charging document obtained by The Daily Memphian, Zimmerman is accused of murdering a woman at a hotel where the two were hiding, following what one witness described as 10 days of domestic abuse. 

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“This was a career criminal,” DeSoto County Sheriff Thomas Tuggle II said at a press conference last week during which he fielded questions from reporters as to how an inmate with Zimmerman’s rap sheet was able to walk out of custody and seemingly vanish into a community where he has no direct ties. 

“This guy’s been in and out of the system for years,” Tuggle said. 

While questions have emerged around the sheriff department’s narrative of events following his escape on Friday, June 14, Tuggle was correct when he said Zimmerman has made a career out of criminality. 

When officers with the Southaven Police Department arrested Zimmerman on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, he was already on the run.

In DeSoto County, Zimmerman is accused of attempted murder, armed robbery, unlawful possession of a firearm and being a fugitive from justice. 

At the time of his arrest in North Mississippi, Southaven police said he attacked a “vulnerable” person living at the Rock Creek Apartments located off Rasco Road between Interstate 55 and Airways Boulevard. 

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“The City of Southaven brought him in for attempted murder, but he has charges out of Texas too,” Tuggle said last week. “He’s potentially violent.” 

And reports of Zimmerman’s alleged crimes in Texas certainly fit the “violent” description. 

Weeks before Zimmerman was accused of attacking and robbing the man in Southaven, Keyanna Shantall Mercer was found deceased at the Red Carpet Inn in southwest Houston. Using false identification, Zimmerman — accompanied by Mercer — had checked into room 243 about 10 days before her body was discovered. 

At that time, Zimmerman used the alias “Vincent Guerino Juliano.”

Detective K. Stringer with the Houston Police Department made the scene around 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023, when he discovered Mercer’s body on the floor of the room. 

“A single 9MM fired cartridge was found on the floor inside the bathroom in close proximity to (Mercer),” Stringer wrote in the incident report. “The room appeared in some disarray with a chair on its side. Clothes that appeared to belong to a man were left on the bed in suitcases. Inside one of the suitcases were unfired 9MM cartridges.” 

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Zimmerman was nowhere to be found, but Stringer’s subsequent investigation determined the pair checked into the room on Aug. 25. The hotel has a policy against fighting, and an employee told Stringer that on Sept. 2, the front desk got a disturbance call regarding shouting from Zimmerman and Mercer’s room. 

“At about 11:00 a.m. on Sept. 2, (the hotel employee) went to room 243 and was met by defendant Joshua Zimmerman wearing only a towel,” Stringer wrote. “She inquired about the fighting but was informed they were not fighting, but talking loudly.”

The employee gave Zimmerman a warning, but after a second complaint later that day, the hotel’s manager returned to the room and found it unoccupied. The manager deactivated Zimmerman and Mercer’s access cards but noted their belongings were still in the room. 

Another Red Carpet Inn resident who shared a wall with the pair for several days during their stay told investigators that the fighting happened frequently.

“He states that he had been hearing the male beat on that female for the past 10 days,” Stringer wrote of the neighbor’s account. 

At another point while they were at the Red Carpet Inn, an employee told investigators that he discovered Mercer on the roof of the hotel, seemingly trying to escape something. 

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“He states that he saw her mouth was bloody and that he asked if she needed help or police,” Stringer wrote. “She said no. He also asked her if she had family. She responded yes, but that they were far away.”

According to social media accounts, Mercer was from Massachusetts. 

Zimmerman later returned and asked the front desk about his card not working, and the operator gave him temporary access to allow him to reenter and gather his belongings. 

Another resident at the Red Carpet Inn would tell investigators that after Zimmerman returned he heard a “female screaming and then single gunshot sound and then no more screaming.” 

Video footage would later show Zimmerman and Mercer reentering their room on Sept. 2 at 5:33 p.m. According to Stringer’s report, audio footage then captured the previously described screaming and subsequent gunshot. 

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Then, around 8:26 p.m., video surveillance captured Zimmerman leaving the room. According to Stringer, no one else had gone into room 243 until another employee went to check if the pair had vacated, discovering Mercer’s body.

As the Houston police worked to locate Zimmerman, Stringer learned that he was wanted in Connecticut. 

“I learned that (the Connecticut Parole Fugitive Unit) had been tracking Mercer’s movements from state to state as she was to be traveling with a fugitive,” Stringer wrote. 

Before making their way to Texas, the pair was spotted in Florida and later Atlanta. 

Zimmerman at the time was wanted in Connecticut for skipping parole. His convictions in that state are lengthy, including charges for larceny and assault.

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Most notably, he was arrested and charged with kidnapping in 2017 after he asked a woman in Danbury, Connecticut, for a ride, at which point the woman said Zimmerman held her at gunpoint and instructed her to check into a nearby hotel for him. 

The woman eventually escaped, but the circumstances of Zimmerman asking her for a ride are similar to his actions immediately following his escape this month in Hernando when he got a ride from a man at a gas station. 

According to the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department, that man drove Zimmerman to Memphis, where he was last seen. 

Zimmerman is still on the run, and according to the sheriff’s department, a joint task force that includes the U.S. Marshals Service has initiated “Phase 2” of the manhunt. Authorities have not released details of that operation.

“All I can say about Phase 2 is Zimmerman, if you’re reading this and you’re seeing this, you need to turn yourself in,” Tuggle said last week. “Phase 2 is starting, and we are going to locate you.” 

As of Monday, June 24, Zimmerman has been at large for 10 days.