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MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Christopher Waters was murdered inside his home in December 2016. More than eight years later, only two of the five men indicted in his death have faced consequences. The cases remain open for three others.

Lisa Waters fondly remembers her son Christopher. She told FOX13, "Every scene, every picture that I have of that child, he was smiling."

Waters was a music teacher at Belle Forest Community School. He also worked at Amro Music and was a professional viola player.

Lisa Waters said, "He stayed there (in Memphis), you know, because of the music. He stayed there and bought him a little house and bought him a nice little car."

She remembers December 9th, 2016 when Christopher was found dead inside his home on Pipers Gap Drive. Waters told FOX13, "My daughter called me one evening and she asked me: have I talked to him? And I knew that he had a concert that night. And we just started calling him and never heard from him."

Memphis police said Christopher Waters was killed in a home invasion robbery. His car, an orange Ford Mustang, was missing from his driveway.

Nicholas Brooks was arrested and charged with Waters' murder after he was found driving that Mustang. After a trial in 2019, Brooks was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Four other people were also indicted in WatersÐÔÊӽ紫ý™ murder: Monterrio Mack, Derius Rivers, Delarrio Kee, and Markell Hare.

Mack pled guilty to second-degree murder in 2023. He is serving a 225-year sentence.

The Shelby County District Attorney's Office says prosecutors are in talks with Rivers and Kee to resolve their cases. They remain out on bond while those cases remain open.

Markell Hare has also been out on bond since 2018. In 2024, his bond was temporarily revoked after he was arrested and charged with domestic violence. The charges were later dropped, and Hare was released. The murder case against him is still pending more than eight years after the crime.

Lisa Waters told FOX13, ÐÔÊӽ紫ýœIt doesn't make me a little angry. It makes me very, very angry."

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy inherited the Waters murder case when he took office in September 2022. He told FOX13 part of the slow progress in WatersÐÔÊӽ紫ý™ case is due to a judgeÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s ruling to sever the five defendantsÐÔÊӽ紫ý™ cases. That means prosecutors must handle each defendantÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s case separately.

FOX13 has reported on Slow Justice in the Shelby County Criminal Court system for years. There are hundreds of cases awaiting resolution, and the pace of trials has been much slower than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mulroy said there are numerous reasons why cases are delayed and many of them are out of prosecutorsÐÔÊӽ紫ý™ hands. But he acknowledged, ÐÔÊӽ紫ýœAs far as the victim is concerned, it doesn't really matter whose fault it is. What matters is they need closure, and that's getting delayed."

MulroyÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s office keeps a 500-day list, cases where the defendant has been in jail for 500 days or more. His staff told FOX13 there are currently 609 cases on that list. Mulroy said, ÐÔÊӽ紫ýœHistorically, it has fluctuated between 500 and 600 cases. And, you know, that's too high. And we're trying to work on lowering it."

In addition to the cases on the 500-day list of defendants in custody, there are thousands of other open cases where the defendants are out of jail on bond.

Mulroy says his staff is paying extra attention to cases that have been pending for three years or longer, predating his time in office.

The pace of criminal trials did increase last year in Shelby County, but it's still far below the amount happening before the pandemic.

The Tennessee Comptroller's Office investigated Shelby County's court system backlog, and in March recommended several reforms to speed up those cases.

Until that happens, victims and their families like Lisa Waters must wait for Slow Justice. "I mean, I think about my son every day," she said, adding, ÐÔÊӽ紫ýœI don't want to say IÐÔÊӽ紫ý™ve lost hope or anything like that, but I certainly hope we get some justice, we just get justice. Because it wasn't deserving and it wasn't supposed to be like this."

You can count on FOX13 to keep investigating Slow Justice.