A jury found Chauncy Black, a Memphis man who was at the center of a national and highly publicized feel-good story five years ago, guilty of reckless endangerment in connection with the fatal shooting of his neighbor last year.

Black, now 20, was found guilty of two counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon in the shooting where Kaleb Wakefield was killed on the night of Jan. 4, 2020, in Cordova.

The jury, which deliberated for two hours, did not find Black guilty of a third charge, employing a firearm during the commission of a felony.

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After the verdict, the victim’s family shed tears as they talked about 26-year-old Wakefield. 

Wakefield, who lived across the street from Black and his family, was not the target in the shooting. He was outside in his driveway when the shooting started and was killed during the shootout between Chauncy Black, his brother, Timothy Black and at least two other men who the brothers were involved in an ongoing earlier argument over video games.

“He is responsible and should have been found guilty on all counts,” said Isabella Edwards, Wakefield’s fiancee, who was inside the home the night of the shooting. “However, with the verdict reached it does not bring Kaleb back. And I think it is a testament to what gun violence has done to Memphis. We had only been in the city for four months.”

Black will be sentenced on Sept. 17. His defense attorneys, Ben Israel and Price Rudolph, said he could receive a minimum of three years or a maximum sentence of 12 years and would have to serve 30% before he is eligible for parole.

“I’m happy that Chauncy is going to go home and not be an old man when he goes home,” Israel said.

The trial began on Wednesday, Aug. 18. Black was the lone defendant in the case. His older brother, Timothy Black, who was also charged in the shooting, died of cancer last year.

Chauncy Black took the stand Friday and said he was protecting his home and family when several armed men he had been involved in an altercation with came to his home in the 6900 block of Lagrange Circle in Cordova. He said he was firing at the men as they sped away from his home and not at his neighbor.

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Prosecutor Austin Scofield during his closing arguments called the shooting death of Wakefield “senseless.”

“Literally someone who was killed over video games. Someone who wasn’t involved,” he said. “Someone who had nothing to do with this. Someone who wasn’t fighting. The people responsible are Timothy and Chauncy Black.”

Scofield and Assistant District Attorney, Katie Farley, did not comment after the verdict.

Chauncy Black gained national attention in 2016 when he was a teenager and took a bus to the Kroger on Highland Avenue. At the store, he asked several people if they would buy him a box of doughnuts for his dinner in exchange for him carrying their groceries to their cars.

Matt White ultimately helped him and started a GoFundMe page that raised $342,106 to help Black and his family.