A Memphis man was sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. He isn’t Tennessee’s first.
Ezekiel Kelly has an emotional reaction after pleading guilty in court Aug. 13, 2025. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
In 1994, an Oklahoma City judge sentenced convicted child rapist Charles Scott Robinson to 30,000 years in prison, 5,000 years for each of the six charges he was facing. It is the longest prison sentence ever given to a single person charged with multiple offenses, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
While the longest sentence ever given in Tennessee is not something Guinness tracks, one man likely made the list Wednesday, Aug, 13, for the state’s most severe punishments.
Ezekiel Kelly, 22, pleaded guilty Wednesday to carrying out a city-wide shooting spree in September 2022, killing three people and wounding three others during the rampage. Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Jones Jr. sentenced him to three life sentences without parole plus an additional 221 years for the 28 charges he was facing.
Several local attorneys told The Daily Memphian that Kelly’s sentence is the longest they’ve seen someone receive during their time practicing. Others said they’ve seen cases that got close or were even longer.
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Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming covers public safety for The Daily Memphian, focusing on crime and the local court system. He earned his bachelor’s in journalism and strategic media from the University of Memphis.
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