Tennessee repeat felon in Rhodes College student’s 2021 murder learns fate

A repeat felon charged in connection with a Rhodes College student’s 2021 murder and home invasion pleaded guilty on Monday and received his prison sentence.

Rainess Holmes, now 40, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to serve 100% of a 20-year prison sentence, plus a combined nine years for three separate burglary cases.

Holmes, a career criminal with charges dating back to 2005, was one of four men who broke into a Memphis home housing several college students, including 22-year-old senior Andrew “Drew” Rainer, at 5:40 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2021, Shelby County court records state.

The surviving residents told Memphis police that four men with hoodies drawn over their faces kicked in their door and demanded the students’ electronics.

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“Andrew Rainer was told to type in the pass code to his iPad and when he failed to do so was shot,” the arrest affidavit states.

The suspects left the home with “several phones, gaming systems, video games” and other electronics belonging to the victims, police said.

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When Memphis police arrived at the scene, they found Rainer dead with a gunshot wound at the bottom of a staircase inside the home.

One of the residents of the home was able to track his iPad’s location to a hotel, where authorities were able to establish a perimeter and eventually track down Holmes, but he fled the area, “jumped a drainage ditch and escaped the area.” He was briefly placed on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list and was detained two days later on Oct. 5.

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The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said in a Monday statement that it “worked very closely” with Rainer’s family “throughout the process.”

“They were present in court and supportive of the outcome,” the DA’s office said.

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Holmes was not the suspect who fatally shot Rainer. Memphis police are still searching for the other three suspects involved in the home invasion and murder.

Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to any additional arrests in the case.

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“One arrest has been made relative to this homicide,” Major Webb Kirkdoffer of the Memphis Police Department’s Homicide Bureau said in a statement. “However, investigators still need the public’s help identifying additional individuals who are responsible for Rainer’s murder.”

A memorial fund created in Rainer’s name called “Live Like Drew” says he “loved with great intensity, and showed enormous courage and self-sacrifice.” He was also an accomplished musician who played in an 80s rock band, an avid reader, an Eagle Scout, and a devoted member of the Catholic Church, according to his obituary.

“Drew was a loving son, brother, nephew, cousin and friend. He was a kind, cheerful, intelligent and outgoing young man, who was loved by his friends,” his obituary said.