News

Self-Described Serial Killer Joshua Dotson Pleads Guilty to Three More Murders, Sentence Now 261 Years

Already serving 102 years for killing his former girlfriend and her unborn child, Dotson pleaded guilty in the deaths of Divieon Parker, Renita Bennett and Reginald Anderson.

Published

Illustration: wet city alley between brick buildings

On the witness stand in a Shelby County courtroom in August 2024, on trial for killing his former girlfriend and her unborn child, Joshua Dotson called himself a serial killer. On February 14, 2025, he made three more of those killings a matter of record. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Divieon Parker, to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Renita Bennett and Reginald Anderson, and to three counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. A judge sentenced him to an additional 159 years, to be served after the sentence he was already serving. The Shelby County District Attorney's Office put his total at 261 years for five murders.

The first sentence came out of the death of Jamesha Covson. Memphis police said officers answering a shooting call at a home in the 1200 block of Quinn Avenue on June 12, 2020, found Covson, 19, with gunshot wounds. Paramedics took her to a hospital, where she and the child she was carrying died. According to police, the two had argued, and Dotson fired at the house as he was leaving. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation later captured him in Nashville.

A jury convicted him in August 2024 of two counts of first-degree murder, one for Covson and one for her unborn child. The district attorney's office described the punishment as two consecutive life sentences totaling 102 years, and FOX13 Memphis reported that it was imposed on Halloween.

At that trial, Dotson took the stand, called himself a serial killer and said, "I'm Michael Myers," FOX13 reported. He admitted that he had killed Covson and claimed he did it because he thought she had told police about murders he had already committed. Police linked him to the shooting death of Parker on November 19, 2019, and to the deaths of Bennett and Anderson on May 24, 2020.

Assistant District Attorney Regina Lucreziano handled the prosecution with Chief Prosecutor Lessie Rainey. "While no amount of time in prison will bring the victims back to their loved ones, we are content that he will never be a threat to our community again," Lucreziano said.

The district attorney's announcement lists three murder counts and three reckless endangerment counts but does not name the judge who accepted the pleas, and it does not say where Parker, Bennett and Anderson were shot. Published reports give Dotson's age at the time as 24 and as 25; it is left out here.

Sources

In the Archive