Grammy-band Musician Shot In Back Of Head By Man Who Stalked His Social Media For Months
A Shelby County jury took less than 10 minutes to convict Eddie Wurl of gunning down Memphis guitarist Blake Rhea outside a bar after months of watching his social media — and testing, a week before the killing, whether his gun would even fire.
Case at a glance
- Edward "Eddie" Wurl — Defendant, sentenced for killing Blake Rhea, sentenced
- Blake Rhea — Memphis musician, member of Southern Avenue, victim
- Lee V. Coffee — Shelby County judge who presided over sentencing, official
Next: The coverage reviewed does not list a further hearing date. Wurl has been sentenced to life with the possibility of parole and is now in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Correction; any appeal or future parole timeline was not addressed in the available reporting.
What happened the night Blake Rhea died
Blake Rhea was shot and killed on Nov. 6, 2024, outside Louis Connelly's bar on South Cleveland Street in Memphis, according to Action News 5.
Prosecutors told jurors they had surveillance video showing Eddie Wurl following Rhea out to his car after Rhea left the bar. In the video, prosecutors said, Wurl was holding what looked like a knife behind his back as he trailed him across the parking lot.
When Rhea reached his vehicle, prosecutors said Wurl shot him in the back of the head.
Investigators later recovered digital evidence from Wurl's phone that, prosecutors said, pointed to premeditation. A week before the killing, someone searched: "If I haven't fired my gun in years will it work?" according to Action News 5. Wurl had also repeatedly visited Rhea's social media profile in the months leading up to the shooting, investigators said — the pattern that gave the case its chilling backbone: a man who studied his target online for months, then checked whether his weapon still worked, then followed through.
Who Blake Rhea was
Rhea played guitar for Southern Avenue, a Memphis band nominated for a Grammy, and taught at the School of Rock Memphis, according to Action News 5.
His death rippled through the city's close-knit music scene. Former bandmate Marcella Simien spoke about the loss in a 2024 story cited by Action News 5: "The sadness will resonate and will be felt for a long time when you lose someone in this music community that is very supportive of one another," she said.
The outlet's coverage does not include additional biographical detail about Rhea beyond his roles with the band and the music school, and this story does not speculate beyond what the record shows.
"The sadness will resonate and will be felt for a long time when you lose someone in this music community that is very supportive of one another," — Marcella Simien, Blake Rhea's former bandmate in Southern Avenue, to Action News 5.
Who Eddie Wurl is, and why he targeted Rhea
The source coverage identifies the convicted man as Edward "Eddie" Wurl. Action News 5's reporting does not spell out a motive or describe any prior relationship between Wurl and Rhea beyond the months of social media visits investigators documented.
What the record does establish is the pattern investigators built from Wurl's phone: repeated visits to Rhea's social media accounts stretching back months, then the search about whether his unused gun would still fire just a week before the shooting, according to Action News 5.
The coverage does not state whether Wurl and Rhea knew each other personally, were connected only online, or had any direct contact before the night of the shooting. Where the record is silent, this story does not fill in the gap.
What the record says: charges, verdict, sentence
A Shelby County jury convicted Wurl in October on two counts: first-degree murder and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, according to Action News 5. First-degree murder in Tennessee is a premeditated, intentional killing — the most serious homicide charge the state brings. The felon-in-possession charge means prosecutors had already established, separately, that Wurl was legally barred from having a gun at all.
Jurors reached that verdict in under 10 minutes of deliberation, a detail Action News 5 included to underscore how little room for doubt the surveillance video and digital evidence left the panel.
Judge Lee V. Coffee handled the sentencing. On Friday, Coffee sentenced Wurl to life in prison with the possibility of parole, and ordered him into the custody of the Tennessee Department of Correction, according to court records cited by Action News 5.
A life sentence with the possibility of parole means Wurl will eventually become eligible for a parole hearing after serving a minimum portion of the sentence set by Tennessee law — it is not a guarantee of release, only a future chance to argue for one before a parole board.
What each side has said
The reporting reviewed for this story does not include a statement from Wurl, his defense attorney, or his family reacting to the verdict or sentence. If that changes, this story will be updated.
Prosecutors' case, as described by Action News 5, rested on two pillars: the surveillance footage showing Wurl following Rhea with an object resembling a knife behind his back before the shooting, and the digital trail — the gun-function search and the months of social media visits — that they argued showed planning rather than a spontaneous act.
The only on-the-record personal reaction in the coverage comes from Rhea's former Southern Avenue bandmate, Marcella Simien, speaking about the loss to the Memphis music community rather than about the trial itself: "The sadness will resonate and will be felt for a long time when you lose someone in this music community that is very supportive of one another," she said, according to Action News 5.
What happens next
The coverage reviewed does not list a further hearing date. Wurl has been sentenced to life with the possibility of parole and is now in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Correction; any appeal or future parole timeline was not addressed in the available reporting.
How this plays in court
A prosecutor building this case would lean hardest on the two pieces of evidence Action News 5 says were shown to the jury: surveillance video placing Wurl behind Rhea with an object resembling a knife, and the phone search about whether an old gun would still fire. Together, those facts go directly to premeditation — the element that separates first-degree murder from a lesser homicide charge.
The months of repeated visits to Rhea's social media page would likely be used to argue intent and planning over time, not a single angry moment. Prosecutors typically use that kind of pattern evidence to rebut any defense argument that the shooting was impulsive or provoked in the moment.
A defense facing this record would have had limited room to argue accident or self-defense once the video and phone evidence were in front of the jury; the under-10-minute deliberation suggests the panel saw the premeditation evidence as largely uncontested.
Because Wurl was also convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, the jury necessarily found he was barred from having a gun in the first place — a fact that, combined with the first-degree murder count, likely weighed into Judge Coffee's sentencing decision alongside the life-with-parole term state law required or allowed in this case.
- Action News 5: Grammy-band Musician Shot In Back Of Head By Man Who Stalked His Social Media For Months