Tragos provides a sharp, clinical breakdown of how the prosecution weaves digital footprints into a compelling narrative of conspiracy. It is an insightful look at how modern data-driven evidence is used to bridge the gaps in complex criminal trials.
Deep Dive
Prerequisite Knowledge
- No data available.
Where to go next
- No data available.
Deep Dive
Julio Foolio Trial Day 1: Prosecutor's Opening Statement - Is This A Slam Dunk?Added:
What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The Lawyer You Know.
And today we're jumping into a brand new trial, but not a new story as another trial has already happened in this case.
It is the Julio Fulio trial where a rapper's life was taken right here in Tampa. A lot of the people involved, lawyers involved, I know we have crossed paths with our firm, my dad, Pete Sardis, etc. So, it's a very interesting thing to look at yet another case where the state is going to try to use songs and lyrics to convict somebody of a crime or multiple somebodyies as this is a conspiracy to end Julio Fulio's life.
Now, today we are going to break down the state's opening statement and it seems like they have a lot of evidence, but will the defense be able to poke holes? Will the defense be able to show this is just theory and not facts and the state's just tying it up in a bow a little too nicely? because you guys have asked a lot of questions about this case and after listening to just the state's opening statement, I'm like, why is there even a question here? Because that's what you should think after the state explains their theory of the case and how they believe the evidence is going to be presented. So, let's get into it.
So, the state starts off their opening statement by laying a road map of exactly what happened and how we got here. Um, a lot of this has to do with gang violence and sometimes it's very difficult as a prosecutor to have an imperfect victim. We've talked about it in other cases and that's something they have here because he's going to show a lot of videos of a lot of songs and a lot of lyrics and talking back and forth, Instagram videos, text messages between a lot of people involved in different gangs that he is going to explain there's a lot of gang violence here and a lot of these gangs are from Jacksonville. They talk about Jacksonville's gang unit and we're probably going to be hearing from them about the backgrounds and which gang each of these defendants and the victims and girlfriends and mothers of children and other friends are all in. And people that have passed in the past, passed away in the past, were killed in the past, were attempted to take people's lives in the past and which gang they're in and how all of that affects why we are here at trial today. because he said these four co-conspirators, the defendants that are on trial today, gathered together, made plans, made reservations, um got cars, got firearms, got certain adjustments made to their firearms to help them commit these crimes and not get caught, drive from Jacksonville to Tampa where they knew Julio Fulio would be celebrating his birthday and took his life in the front seat or the driver's seat of a Dodge Charger where he was trapped and had nowhere to go and they just unloaded on him. And one of the wild parts of this is there's literally video of this crime being committed. Now, a lot of the shooters and defendants in the case or the people that actually committed these crimes were wearing hoodies picked up with face masks on, so you can't really identify them. But there are other videos and cell phone um tracking and a lot of evidence in this case that the state is going to use to try and explain this is how we know which defendant this guy is in the video, which defendant this guy is in the video. And they're going to go through that methodically.
So, now we're going to listen to the state introduce us to each of the defendants and then kind of explain what their motive is behind it. Um, in this first clip, the conspirators, Isaiah Chance, also known as Gutta, Gut Man, Guta, and Mr. rich off war.
Sean Gathight >> and a lot of their nicknames and things people call them and text messages and songs and rap names they're going to use against them.
>> DaVon Murphy and Rashad Murphy, also known as Ghost or Ghost 187.
There was a fifth participant that night, Alicia Andrews, who was Mr. Chance's defended Isaiah Chance's girlfriend.
>> And I I saw like clips of her trial. I think I may have started watching it and then just kind of popped in and out. I believe she was convicted of a lesser included like conspiracy. Was it? No.
No. I don't think she was convicted on conspiracy something with manslaughter.
I think I I got to go back and check, but I know she was convicted of something, but not what the state was going for. Which adds intrigue to this when you listen to the state's opening statement and it seems so open and shut.
And I'll just tell you myself, I don't know a ton about this case. It seems like they've got a lot of evidence. It does not look good for these defendants.
This to me seems like why are we here at certain parts, but you never know what's going to happen. And you never know how a jury is going to feel about gang violence, right? Are they going to be like, "Oh, we don't care. Everybody's a bad guy." Are they going to be like, "Oh, the victim's actually worse. These guys are heroes." Doesn't usually end like that, but it's a conversation you have to have. And research shows that the type of defense or the type of victim can sometimes affect how a jury feels about a case because a jury wants to feel like they are part of justice doing the right thing getting the right result. So what is that going to feel like at the end of the day here? Because every person deserves justice. No matter what you did before, you do not deserve to be gunned down in a parking lot like this person is. Now there might be some people that thinks he did deserve it based on what he did. We'll see how it all comes out. And that's what we're thinking. What is in the mind of the jury here?
>> And who along with Isaiah and Chance would provide the essential surveillance for this conspiracy to understand the wicked purpose that drove and motivated this shared desire to end Charles Jones's lives or life. We need to look >> back in time in the city of Jacksonville.
to the lives and associations of Mr. Jones and all of these defendants.
We'll go back in years and I'm going to walk you through a gang war that has been occurring in the city of Jacksonville and that in this case traveled here and spilled into our streets here in Tampa.
>> Yeah.
>> And he's explaining into our streets here in Tampa. and he's going to explain exactly where this happened and the bars that are around and the places that are around and all the people that are around and these defendants fired without a care in the world for all of the lives here in our streets of Tampa.
That's a big deal and that's a good way to get this jury wanted to be like, "Yes, we want justice not just for the victims here in this case, but the potential victims that could have gotten hurt because of the gang violence that they brought here from Jacksonville to Tampa to our streets, to our kids, to our cousins, to our friends, right?
That's that's a way prosecutors can really grip somebody and bring them into the story and say, "You are part of justice here."
>> Gerard Adams, also known as Spaz, was part um of a gang called 1200. He was murdered in August uh of 2018.
Mr. Adams, as I said, was part of a gang, 1200. 1,200 is affiliated with another gang, ATK. Those two gangs are affiliated.
Adrian Biddy Gainer was associated to another gang, Six Block, which was an opposing gang. In this case, in the evidence, you may hear the term ops or opposition or dead ops, meaning opposing gangs. the opposition ATK and 1200 R and R the opposition the six block six block also has a subset or a subgame bully gang which is confederated with six block Juan Pickkins also known as Jit was murder murdered in August of 23 August 16th of 23 the next day August se 17th of 23 Jacobe Li Colby deals a 1,200 gang member shot multiple times he would survive and you can see in this and you will see in the state's evidence a back and forth between these gangs that oppose each other in October of 23 October 6 specifically of 23 around 11:45 Antonio Tilly who was an ATA or was an ATA gang member was shot to death while he was at an Uber just >> the horrible horrible horrible horrible violence. By the way, Charles Jones is Julio Fulio. Uh just the horrible violence and young lives taken is brutal to listen to. Brutal to listen to. And he goes through it like I mean not not to say that he was being insensitive about it at all. I think he was being sensitive to it, but explaining like this is why this is why, you know, this is happening because it's friends and and family members, blood relatives of people who were taken in the past coming up and avenging their death, right? I mean, it literally it seems like a movie or a TV show here with all of the horrible violence he's explaining. But you can understand if that was a member of, you know, your family, how you would react and what you would want to do, especially if you feel like, you know, law enforcement either doesn't do the right thing or doesn't care about when somebody's taken from your side or whatever it may be. And will there be a feeling that maybe just because this person is famous, that's why, you know, his case is getting on trial, but all the things that happened to all these people in the past, why not? Will there be kind of a bigger discussion around this case? Over 6 hours after the murder of Antonio Tilly on October 7th, attackers with high-powered rifles would shoot up that same Dodge Charger being driven by our murder victim, Charles Jones. This was 9 months before the murder of Charles Jones. He had left his house at about 6:00 in the morning and was driving down the street coming to a stop sign when attackers with high-powered rifles opened up on his Dodge Charger. He would escape that morning with his life. He would drive to a local hospital and be treated for a gunshot wound to his lower leg.
>> So, there was a prior attempt on Mr. Jones's life. The victim in this case just got hit in the leg. And then they have, I think, like a Twitter spaces where somebody from the opposing gang, I can't I can't remember if it was one of the defendants or not, was like, "How's your foot, Fio?" And so, there's references to that. Additionally, they're going to connect shots that were fired in that first attempt on his life to shots that were fired on the successful attempt on his life. So, there's a lot of connections with the the prior attempt.
Drill rap. We talked about rap music yesterday with several folks in the jury pool. Drill rap is a different type of rap. It is a specific type of ramp that these groups that I've already talked to you about six block and bully gang and then on the other side 1200 atk engaged in songs that were produced and songs that were distributed on social media platforms like YouTube and Spotify rap music where the opposing gangs casualties people in those gangs that had been murdered would be demeaned mentioned were ridiculed, made fun of.
To elevate the gang making the video, to elevate elevate their status, they would demean not just the other gang, the other gang, but what is more incendiary, they would speak specifically to members of the opposing gang who had been murdered in sarcastic lyrics, traveling in some instances to grave sides, whether it was the graveside of that person who was actually killed or some other graveside that would stand in. In addition to the drill rap, they would post photos on social media making fun of the opposing gangs casualties.
>> So, I I think they're using these lyrics and songs in a smarter way. um you know, talking about drill rap, talking about where they specifically do this, what they specifically name, they they talk about some of the songs, they play some of the songs, they put the lyrics up there so the jury can follow along like who I smoke and what that means with, you know, explanations of the lyrics and talking about referencing Charles Jones, referencing the six block, um referencing Mr. six, the Don Julio alcohol, four in the cog, one dead, three hit, which is they he says, you know, the prosecutor says that's exactly what happened in this case. They're referencing this shooter um because the other three people that were in the car with Julio Fulio were all injured um or hit with firearms and or with um bullets, but only Julio Fulio died. And that's exactly what they're referencing in the song.
Um, then they also but they they're not hiding from the fact that Julio Fulio, the victim in this case, also parttook in this type of rap and and almost like did he ask for it? Um, and whether he asked for it or not, this is why it happened because he was baiting them. He was making fun of them. He was doing this drill rap against them. He has tens of millions of followers. There was another person in the opposing gang that has tens of millions of followers. And he's explaining this in a way to me that is more gripping than when you just say, "Hey, here's all we have. these three lyrics that said, you know, I I pull the trigger, let the smoke fly or something, you know, something that's like artistic. This seems way more than that and very different from some of the other trials that we have covered. And it might just be his presentation, right? It might just be the way that he is presenting this for all of us to listen to. Um, and you know, he talks about how the fact that it's, you know, going back and forth.
Okay. Next, he sets the scene here.
Um, and you, like I said, there's videos of so much of this. So, this happened in the hotel parking lot, and there's cameras all around the hotel parking lot. He's going to show the demonstra I thought were just A+ here, arrows on where the cars are going, how you move the cell phone towers across, how these videos corroborate the cell phone and where they were, and the text message corroborate the cell phones, which people left their cell phones at home.
So much corroboration through the evidence. Again, this is just the state's explanation. And yes, it sounds like a slam dunk. If I'm being honest, it sounds like a slam dunk. But we know better than to make up our mind just after opening statement. And I want to know what you guys all know about this case. I'm sure you know way more about the background if you've been following this case than I do. I'm kind of jumping in at trial trying to learn and understand it as the jury would because the jury doesn't know much about this case probably. This is not something I will say that just is kind of in normal circles in the Tampa Bay area. Not a ton of people have been talking about this case. Um, I know in the, you know, YSL and YNW Melly and a lot of these trials that are kind of connected to this when it comes to rappers and lyrics being used and things like that in Florida and Georgia that there is talk around this case. So, let me know what questions you guys have, what angles you think are going to come out and come in, what angles you think the defense is going to argue because I haven't listened to the defense's opening statement yet and I didn't want to before making this video.
I'm going to go back and watch them later. If you guys are not interested in this trial, just let me know and we can, you know, move on. I'll probably keep following it since it's in Tampa Bay, but I don't have to follow it, you know, with a laser focus like I would if we're going to be talking about it um on the channel, obviously. But hit that like button and let me know in the comments if you guys are interested in me continuing to follow this case. So, let's uh listen to him set the stage here. It seems like every day I hear about another data breach. And as someone who has an active online presence, privacy is really important to me. So, I want to protect myself as much as I can in every different scenario because you never know which website, which company is going to have a data breach and your information can very easily be out there with how we all live our lives today. And that's where today's sponsor, Delete Me, comes into play. Because with Delete Me, you can protect your personal privacy or the privacy of your business from doxing attacks before sensitive information can be exploited. The New York Times wire cutter has named Delete Me as their top pick for data removal services. Elite Me makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. So take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/awyer and use promo code lawyer at checkout.
The only way to get 20% off is to go to joindeme.com/awyer and enter code lawyer at checkout. One last time, joined me.com/awyer code lawyer.
>> You see up here that's a few minutes off. It's actually around uh 4:34 4:35 a.m. in the morning. It's June 23rd of 2024.
So, he's pulling into that portico having just turned off southbound McKinley. You can see here this is a Hyundai that'll go down, turn around and come up behind him. That's being driven by Armani um who is his um Armani Turn, excuse me, who is his girlfriend.
>> Yes. I can't see what they >> um Yeah, >> it you're looking at the car with the tail lights lit up. Mr. Jones is in the front passenger seat. The car is being driven by um his friend Xavier Edwards.
The car that is sitting there already in the portal belongs to an employee.
That's unrelated to the case.
And this steaming coming off there, that's coming from the building. Has nothing to do with the cars.
You're going to see Mr. Jones. He's wearing a red um knicking a white t-shirt.
You will see him exit the charger and walk into the hotel.
So what happens is while they were out that night, she had made a reservation, but because they arrived so late, it was given away.
In this video, you'll see him return slightly followed it, and I'll explain that in a few minutes.
two Jones friends. They had gone around to the other side of the hotel that were just coming back seat of the Altima. Another young lady can be a Bentley is the surveillance tracker vehicle that was utilized cruise.
>> All right.
>> Now you're going to see >> why they're at the hotel. But now you start to see some of the defendants and co-conspirators get involved.
>> See another car come by. This is a small silver Chevy Cruise. This, you will find in the evidence, is the surveillance tracker vehicle that was utilized by these conspirators, by these defendants to follow to track and stalk Mr. Jones and his friends, giving real time by communications, by phone, real time location data and information about where he would be.
This car passes by being driven by defendant Isaiah Chance, his girlfriend.
You saw her earlier, Miss Andrews, is in the front passenger seat.
The assault team is already present on the west side of the hotel. That was the car that had pulled in earlier and went northbound and did not pass the portico.
This is a mounted camera, by the way, folks on the hotel that's facing uh eastsoutheast.
And if you look in the upper right part of the screen by the two palm tree um palm trees, you're going to see right before the shooting happens, a masked individual's face pop out.
The evidence in in this case will show that is defendant Rashad Murphy. He is the Glock shooter. This is the beginning of the um well actually it's not. First we're going to see the Chevy Cruise come by and then the Chevy Cruise will do a three-point turn. You'll see that in other video evidence shortly. And it turns around and goes back out.
And now it's exiting.
Mr. chance drives right past the victim and exits the the parking lot of the hotel literally within seconds of the murder occurring and start >> and later he's going to explain what it means to be a principal that you are involved in it that you are a co-conspirator that you knew about it you set it up you were lookout you don't actually have to be there when the crime's committed you don't have to actually be the one pulling the trigger and that's mostly for that codefendant Mr. hits out on Mckenley Edwards.
Here's the shooter.
Xavier Edwards tries to escape from the shooting. You can see the other two cars.
>> The evidence will show that he goes down, he does a U-turn and comes back north on McKinley and passes the hotel just before the shooting begins.
Here's the shooter.
Xavier Edwards tries to escape from the shooting. You can see the other two cars, one being driven by Amia Dentley, who's going forward, the other one being driven by Romani Turner, who's going backwards, and they're haste to flee from the shooting. They actually collide with each other, and they both end up going southbound on McKenley. They go different directions.
Now, this is what I was talking about where by the palm trees, you will see a head pop out right before the full appearance of the shooters. That is Rashad Murphy.
You will see another shooter run over to that tree um just to the center of the um of the video screen just to the right of that Lexus SUV. The evidence will show in this case that that is definitely >> So it's all on camera, right? So it should be simple and easy for them to prove, right? except for the fact that it is not always clear who is who and how are they going to connect each defendant with each person there. Um there's also a Tesla video where you can see another one of the um I keep saying the defendants as the people in the video but as the actual people that committed the crimes. We'll see if they actually are able to uh prove that it is the defendants. Um the shooters we can call them. Um then there were other people that were already in the car that I mentioned that were also hit in their attempted murder counts um for each of them. Uh we're going to jump ahead a little bit just to kind of see some of the other information they have. Um the defendants had an Airbnb and they talk about, you know, how they signed up for the Airbnb. They talk about the gunshot wounds there and how you see the um front of the Airbnb and how they're bringing I'm just going to uh play this so you can kind of see they're bringing these big duffel bags in and out.
>> Mr. Chance, you will see the evidence that they are friends.
That is the Impala, the black car.
>> These are the defendants. These are the cars that they tracked and the cars that they saw exactly where they went and saw on other videos. Um, all the bags they're putting in and they'll connect it to what they found at the house when they searched the house later.
>> Yeah.
>> Talking about how they're going to load the heaviest bags into the truck first.
The BMW on the top part of the screen belongs to Miss Chance. He would later go retrieve his girlfriend, Miss Anony's, and bring her back to this.
>> Okay. And then um the camera at the Airbnb only picks up the girlfriend going in the day of the shooting because all of them he said were smart enough to go out of other doors, sliding glass doors, back doors, things like that. Uh he says they do get sloppy because you see them later um in the days following the shooting. There's a McDonald's video of the defendant, shows where the defendants were, which car, things like that. The cell phone data, like I said, seems awesome. Um he shows we're going to take a look at him kind of show I mean I'll just kind of skip through some of this to show like they've got videos of where the cars are driving. They've got the maps of exactly where they drove. Um they've got the maps that were in the the phones of the defendants and the other people that were with the defendants. They've got the McDonald's camera. They've got um the way the cars drove around the uh hotel where the shooting actually occurred. and the red arrows of where the cars were coming from and where they were going. Um, and then another damning video, they have one of the defendants driving the car to a family member's house to switch cars with the family member. And when he switches cars with the family member, yeah, the Don Julio bottles again, they're saying basically, you know, this is them gloating that they um shot Julio Fulio. So yeah, this is uh one of the defendants uh Gathight that parked this car in front of a family member's house to switch it. But what is he going to do before he switches cars the garage through another camera down? This has been accelerated. He's wiping the car down.
And he ends up switching cars with his grandmother, leaving the Impala there in Auburnale and taking a Toyota 4Erunner.
He drives the 4Runner to Orlando and then back to Jacksonville.
So, first he wipes down the Impala.
Obviously, that doesn't look good. Why are you wiping down the car? He didn't do anything. No criminal activity. Why would you wipe down the car? Fair questions. Um, then really interesting, the the ammunition. There's going to be firearms experts. They're going to be able to connect ammunition found in Ghost's car when he was actually arrested that match what was at the crime scene. But the firearms were altered in multiple ways. They were altered to be automatic firearms. And they had what do they call them? Shell catchers or something. You guys know I'm not a a gun guy. What do they call it?
Get uh they were modified to catch the casings. Um and they show these baskets when they search the house. And they actually see the casings that were in the baskets that were catchers. That's why there was no rifle rounds found at the scene. There were a lot of other rounds found at the scene, but no rifle rounds found at the scene um because um they were there to catch the actual casings and they found casings that match the exact same brand that was in um uh that was or sorry, the brands of the ammunition were the same in Ghost's car that were found at the scene. And the casings that were found in the catcher that were at the uh house when they searched the house were the same that they believed from the rifles that were used at the shooting. So all of the evidence is connecting basically is what is what the prosecutor says. Um and they connect all of them together and he does a good job of saying this is this defendant, this is that defendant, this is this defendant because there are four different defendants, four different lawyers that are going to be making making opening statements if they want to. Uh they can hold opening or reserve for later, but four different uh defense attorneys that we'll see if they point the finger at each other. I have no idea if there's a joint defense agreement.
Sometimes that can get creative.
Sometimes that can get wild. Sometimes that can be very interesting to see how, you know, one defendant may admit to one thing and not another or say like, "Yeah, we knew this might happen, but he had nothing to do with it. He drove off.
He didn't know what was going to happen behind him." We'll see if that happens for uh one of the co-conspirators here.
Um if that's how he's going to try to get out of it, but there's a lot when you're battling four people, sometimes it can be a lot more difficult than just battling one.
See what else we got. Um, oh, they again talk about the defendants shot without a care in the world for all of these people um that you know live in the Tampa Bay area. We'll play just a little clip of that just so you can kind of get a gist of how he's really gripping the jury here.
>> Attend orientation at USF, parents with their children and other people here in Tampa sightseeing. That hotel's located right up the road from Bush Gardens and the Youngling uh Yingling Brewery. They were here. All of those people in that car in that hotel, none of that affected these shooters. They shot with impunity and with disregard for anyone in the area. And you'll hear those rifle rounds that were being shot by Mr. Davon Murphy and by Mr. Gathight as they pursued the Charger up the west northwest side of the hotel. There are impacts up and down that western side of that hotel.
>> So really gripping, right? How this is us. This is our community that this happened in. We need to protect our community. Um, they talk about how he they use surprise and speed on Mr. Jones. It was not the first attempt on his life. They talk about how they can identify each of the defendants. We'll listen to some of that. I also just I really like their demonstrabes. And part of it is so that's the those are the casings they found in the casing catcher that they altered the firearms to be able to have this. Um, okay. Yeah. Now we get into cell phone towers and eventually so they talk about how you can see lights with this defendant. I wanted to show kind of how they showed their movements throughout the day because I thought that was kind of cool. Um so yeah, they kind of are just showing how it moves down the map and each one of them move to this location and that location based on um the cell phone uh towers. Now we'll see. A lot of times that can get picked apart, but it sure looks good in the prosecutor's opening. All right, so now he's going to kind of go through And again, really good job corroborating like he's holding his phone. This is where his phone location data says that he is all matching up to show like we know what we're talking about. We're good. We've got all this evidence together. We're going to be able to prove this case. Very smart way to do that as the prosecutor. Now, good defense can pick it apart if there are things to pick apart. But it certainly sounds like it's all fitting together like a nicely done puzzle here.
>> Talking to Mr. Chance, getting the code is hitting off of the tower just south of the Airbnb. his phone when he is at his grandmother's house in Auburndale is hitting off a tower just in the south of that address and when he's in Orlando it's hitting there his phone is a communication with Isaiah Chance now these are different this is CDRs call detail records this is a list of all calls made dates times outgoing incoming the phone being called or the phone receiving from he is communicating with Gathide's phone around the time 622 and to Miss Andrew's phone by these records alone some images of the shooter on top um farthest out away from the hotel. You can see the muzzle flash on that rifle that that shooter is holding. But you can see the shooter is tall, thin, wearing a hoodie. More muzzle fire, muzzle flashes. You can see a good outline in the headlights of the rifle, the outline of the rifle, including the sling attached to the rifle that is around his shoulder. But this is a tall, thin shooter with light skin. You can see him running into this tree because of his height. He is falling backwards but is agile enough to catch himself and to continue firing. And again, his hand and his face are exposed and you can see the light skin.
There is no doubt in this evidence and the evidence that we brought before you that that shooter was Mr. Gathright.
This is a list of phone numbers. Mr. Gathight had got rid of his phone and was obtaining a new phone, had made a handwritten list um that included several of his codefendants names and numbers. Moving on to Mr. Murphy. Mr. Murphy, the evidence will demonstrate to you, was the Glock pistol shooter. You can see the Glock in his left hand. You will find in the evidence, Mr. Rashad Murphy is left-handed, his dominant hand. You can see the extended magazine sticking up just to his lower back on the outside, covered head to toe. Now, on June 21st of 24, the Friday night at 10:24, 222 24, Mr. Murphy was shopping at a Walmart in Jacksonville. I think we can get some video here.
He is holding a phone in his right hand that is has a pink case. He's walking around. You can see the clothing he is wearing, the positioning of the belt and the type of belt. He is wearing boots, all of which look similar to the clothing being worn on the lower body of the Glock shooter. Both going on the lower middle and coming back from the shooting scene. You can see in the um video in the top middle photo, there is some type of an issue um a cut or something in the left knee area of the pants.
But anyways, that phone when Mr. Murphy leaves Tampa and the um Uber and goes back to Jacksonville, the same Uber with Mr. Chance and Miss Andrews, he doesn't stay in Jacksonville. That's not far enough away. He flees the state of Florida. He flees into the state of Georgia up to Atlanta and is stopped on the 26th by Gwynette County PD who pick up his vehicle, the same car that was being utilized by Mr. Chance as the tracking spotter car, the surveillance car, the Chevy Cruz, the car that belonged to his brother's baby mama. Um, it is picked up on an LPR. I don't know how much of this is feeling like convoluted or confusing when it's like this person's that person's connection that was used for this or that but to me certainly a lot of connections right seems like more than a coincidence >> flock system that Gwynette County contracts with them officers from uh Gwynette County start searching the area and they come upon a hotel where there is flock activity LPR activity um they stay in that area in the early morning hours of the 26 and they end up encountering Mr. Murphy returning to the hotel and that cruise just around daybreak. He pulls into a spot. A Gwynette County PD cruiser pulls up behind him. You will hear from that officer. You will see his body warning camera. As he exits the car, taking into account why this car is a suspect car.
He draws his firearm and points it at Mr. Murphy who is exiting the car ordering him to show him his hands. And instead, Mr. Murphy turns and runs and flees around the corner of the hotel.
The unformed officer gives pursuit on foot. You will see the video. He tases.
He's yelling at Mr. Murphy. Stop police.
He tases him which knocks him to the ground and they're able to take him into custody. Back in the car being utilized in navigation mode is that same phone.
It is a phone that this defendant shares with Charmaine Stiger and it is a phone that he left in Jacksonville. Mr. Murphy, you will not see any phone cell phone evidence for the ghost because he left his phone in Jacksonville.
You can see Mr. Murphy's head poking up between the palm trees just before the attack.
In the left you see Mr. Murphy in custody in Gwynette County. Um he is accompanied by Charmaine Snider his girlfriend and the mother I believe of his children. They had booked into a hotel. He's wearing the same jeans that he's wearing in the uh driveway of the Gathight residence, Mr. Gatright's residence when they came back on the in the Uber. But that's really not I don't believe that it'll be in dispute that that is him in the driveway.
This is the closeup of the reservation being made with the Airbnb at Lagoon.
Uh, hello Rashad. Thank you for your reservation. It goes through confirming your reservation at Lagoon Oasis, staying from June 22nd to the 24th.
And you can see that reservation is being made. You see just at the bottom there, 3:50 a.m. early morning. He's asked to forward his uh driver's license. These are found inside of that phone that is collected in Gwynette County. You'll hear from Gwynette County officers that they conducted a search of this phone. And you can see there um those images of the DL, his DL or ID card being sent on June 22nd about 8:00 in the morning. 4 in the morning when he said, "Yes, 4 in the morning because that's 8:00 UTC. So that would be 4:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. These images were located to the left in the phone.
photographs taken of his leg and his feet showing footwear that appears to be the same type of footwear that the Glock shooter is wearing in the crime scene.
On June 23rd of 2024 at around noon, Mr. Murphy posts this to his Instagram account under Ghost 187. Prosper and Junior Gday today, which you will hear from gang detectives, Gday is get back day today. Prosper, he puts down 187 babies. So, it's a lot more than just, you know, rap lyrics as well. When you have their social media, text messages, things like that, connecting it all together and they are going to have to explain this verbiage because sure, they can say that's what GDay means and it sounds good. Yeah, I get what he's saying and how that fits into the plan and 187 babies and whatever it may be, but are they actually going to be able to prove that means what they say it means? And how are they going to prove that?
>> Um, Prosper and Junior were individuals who were shot several years prior. they were members of a predecessor gang that became um 1,200 and that is an homage to them the state would prove to you >> and even that's a little bit confusing right this predecessor gang that turned into this gang and whatever how are they going to prove the gang affiliations one of the most interesting things in this to me is will any of the defendants testify uh will any of the other people involved in this girlfriends whatever that may have been there friends that know about this are they going to turn and testify against any of these guys um will any of the defendants point the finger at each other I'm very very interested in that when have this many defendants here at trial together. And I believe I didn't cover any of this pre-trial, but I believe there was a motion to sever um to try and split these cases up that was denied, which I found interesting.
By the way, this is the same judge that was in the girlfriend's case that I believe is not going to be handling the sentencing. Um again, I've just like read clips on that and stuff. I've heard maybe there were some bias issues, but I don't know why she would still be handling this case if she was found to be biased. So, I'm not really positive how that one all shook out. This is also the same judge that was on the Ronnie O'Neal case way back in the day. The guy that represented himself and just unbelievable trial to watch and experience. If you haven't, you can go check out the entire playlist on our channel. It's one of our very, very early trials that we covered.
>> And it's evidence just after the murder of Mr. Jones.
Gerard Adams going back to that murder that occurred in August of 18. Mr. Adams is a blood cousin of both of the Murphy's, Davon and Rashad. So, this wasn't just about gang affiliations. The evidence will show um as far as Mr. Murphy Rashad Murphy and July 30th of 2024 because he was released by Gwynette County, he was not arrested for murder up in Winn County.
There was not a warrant active at that time. July 30th, he was arrested in Jacksonville by Jacksonville uh sheriff's office detectives and he was interviewed by two gang detectives. Um and you'll hear their testimony and they ask him about this murder and they ask him about being in Tampa. He denies that he was in Tampa and he denies it several times that he was in Tampa. He does admit that the self silver Chevy Cruz that he was stopped in in Georgia and arrested in um that he did obtain that from his brother's uh the mother of his brother's children.
He claims that he let someone borrow it that weekend of the murder to take it to Orlando. He admits that the phone um that was in his possession in Georgia in the car, the cruise is a phone that he shares with Miss Stiger, but he challenges the officers to look at it because he won't confirm or be able to find any way to prove that it was in Tampa, which it wasn't because he didn't bring it with him. Um and he again stands and on the story that he l he loaned out the silver Chevy Cruz, claiming that it was returned to him on the 23rd.
As far as the Airbnb, he says he doesn't know anything about it. He would never let anybody put it in his name.
When confronted with the text messages, he admits that he sent a picture of his ID, but he didn't know that it was being booked in Tampa. That again says he was never in Tampa, not that weekend.
Doesn't know anything about the murder about Tampa.
And then the detectives confront him with the Uber video from Sean Gatheright's house. And then everything changes.
you have a defendant that did make statements, that did deny it, even when he was shown, you know, evidence like, uh, this is your picture. You signed up for the Airbnb, you were here, you were there, your phone loaned this car, that, and then everything changes when he's confronted with the footage.
>> First, he says he goes there all the time. He describes Sean as a light-skinned guy.
Thank you.
Then he admits that he put the Airbnb in his name, but keeps denying he went to Tampa. Then the detectives step out of the interview room for a while.
Meanwhile, Rashad Murphy puts there's a blanket in there to keep him warm, puts it over his head, lays his head on the table for a while. They come back in and he still tells him he wasn't in Tampa.
Then he claims he was physically in Tampa that week and he changes his story. He's seen the Uber video. He says early that morning of the 23rd, he and another guy who the detectives investigated and find is a deceased person. Traveled to Tampa in some old car. He wasn't even here for two hours.
He does mention that he went in the back door of a residence.
And then he says he hopped in the Uber.
Just hopped in and came straight back to Jacksonville and an Uber.
I want to talk to you real quick about principles. So, are they going to be able to prove that those are lies? Are they going to have objective evidence like cell phone towers, pictures of the car, him in the car, him in the location of the house? Because to me, it sounds like the prosecutor's like, "We got the goods." And when we showed him some of it, then he flipped the story and he kept trying to explain it away with different lies, but we were able to prove it was all lies. And we'll see how the evidence actually comes out in this case. And now he's going to talk about principles and how all of these people can be convicted of first-degree murder um because they knew it was going on and participated in it and had shared intent and all took part in creating and accomplishing this crime.
>> I go through this a little bit with you.
>> If a defendant helps another person or persons commit or attempt to commit a crime, the defendant is a principal and must be treated as if he had done all the things the other persons did. If the state proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended that the crime occur and that he did some act or said something, if anything that was intended to and did either incite his codefendants, causing >> and even saying something that incites, causes or encourages assisting or advising the other person or persons to actually commit or attempt to commit the crime, right? So, it seems like they're going to be able to connect all these together. If you get one, you're going to get them all. It's not always how it works, though. Even with instructions like this, sometimes juries only want to convict the shooters and not the other people or if you can't prove he was actually the lookout if he just happened to be driving his car there at the time, but he wasn't there, one of the ones that was actually the trigger man. You know, we'll see how it actually comes out. But the way the law says based on the way the state's presenting the evidence and their theory of the case, they're all together in this >> or encourage them or assist them or advise them to actually commit or attempt to commit a crime.
So a principal is looking who intends for the murder to happen in either incites, causes, encourages by some word they say or some act that they do that the other person or persons commit or attempt to commit the crime. For first-degree murder, the state must prove that the defendant intended the killing of the victim in this case, Charles Jones. It's not necessary for a principal to know every detail of how a first-degree murder will be committed as long as that person intended that it be committed and did some act or said something that was intended to help or did help the murder to occur. But almost most importantly, a principal does not have to be present when the crime is committed. They don't have to be present when the crime is committed.
If the defendant is found to be a principal, he is legally responsible and accountable for everything that his codefendants did.
And that leads us to Mr. Chance. Mr. Chance along with his girlfriend were in the car that was tracking, following, and surveilling Mr. Jones. And again, providing real-time information as to his whereabouts and location, even with the type of coordination that as the victim is exiting teasers, the Impala comes right there within a minute and pulls into the parking lot from a completely opposite direction. This is his mapping. It maps him going all the way down from Gathright's house all the way down to the Airbnb. And it's the same kind of mapping sequence that we saw with Mr. Gathright, but instead of going to Aubberdale and Orlando, it tracks him back in that Uber going back north.
We talked about uh Mr. Dathright or Mr. Chance being at Gath's house, he's hitting off of cell towers right there at the same time. Again, hitting all cell towers so we know he's there. his phone is hitting off of the uh phone tower just south of the Airbnb at the same time on the 22nd that his girlfriend is seen at the front door. He also, you will see in the cell tower um mapping goes to the area of teasers are out 9:30 and is there for over an hour.
You can see here the cell tower that is his phone is utilizing by teasers.
When he active Miss Andrews on the video, his phone is hitting off the tower. This cell phone um tower is hitting near Hillsboro and 15th at the same time. The Chevy Cruz is being picked up on a license plate reader at 15th Street in Hillsboro. You will see a lot of overlapping in the state's evidence. Um and then the murder scene. When the Chevy Cruz is in the murder scene, Mr. Chance's cell phone is utilizing towers just to the south of the murder scene.
When the cruise is right there by home to sweets right before the murder, again, using that tower just to the south of the murder scene. And then he's back at the Airbnb mapped there by route 308 which is around the time the Uber left.
His phone is in contact with Miss Andrew's phone. His phone is in contact with Mr. Dathright's phone. His phone is in contact with DaVon Murphy's phone.
And his phone is in contact on the 20th of June, a couple of days before they left with Rashad Murphy Charmaine Ster's phone. And on June 23rd at 10:29 a.m., just hours after the death of Charles Jones, he posts this to his Instagram account, a photograph of Mr. Chance. And the person giving the bird there on the other side of the car is Antonio Tilly, who we know is a dead or not a dead operative.
Mr. Chance, see if I can do it. giving the 112 1200 gang sign. There will be many other images of him throwing gang signs. This was found in his house during a search warrant. Bully down. That is talking about the six block bully gang.
Miss Andrew's phone maps pretty much um consistently all the way through with Mr. uh Chance's phone. Wherever his phone is, her phone is mapping there too, including the murder scene. So, I will move through that and including McDonald's.
This is a photograph taken by her phone when she and Mr. D, I'm sorry, Mr. Chance were in the Truth 18 parking lot.
And you can see in the background the second floor where the Truth 18 Club is with the patrons outside.
This is Miss Andrew's phone being mapped near Wadi off of 301, the city of Wadi.
there at the same time on an LPR is the Infinity on the left SUV the Uber that ends up at >> some of them took an Uber back to Jacksonville afterwards. By the way, this was like hours and hours of opening, but I didn't feel like it was too long because you have four defendants. You have to make sure you have them. You have to make sure you mention each one of them what they did kind of four different sections and multiple different parts. There's so much cell phone data. I didn't feel like it was overly long. At points, maybe it got a little bit boring, but I didn't know a lot about this case. So seeing exactly what they have and how they're going to prove it and some of the stuff that's still coming up. I want to pair it down as much as I could to get it, you know, in a 1-hour breakdown video of you or for you. That's why we're only doing the state today. And if you guys are interested, we can do the defense tomorrow. If you're not, I'll just watch this trial, like I said, and and we can kind of move on. But it was so long and so much information that I I felt like we needed to just highlight this as one video and then we can do the rest later.
>> Mr. Gath Wright's house and of course her cell phone is there. DaVon Murphy, who the state believes the evidence will show is with the orange ski mask who was up behind the other two shooters.
We have mapping of his phone from Jacksonville there. His phone is hitting off a tower just to the side of the um McDonald's at the time he is there in the Chevy. is cool the way you know you know if they end up getting convicted and they got the bad guys here using the cell phone towers using McDonald's camera using the red light cameras using the camera security cameras at the hotel using the doorbell camera at the Airbnb using how they signed up with Airbnb using the Uber I mean just so many different pieces of evidence that you really have to put this puzzle together so I mean a lot of work went into this that's pretty obvious >> cruz his phone is hitting off the tower just to the south of the Airbnb at 259 9 several hours after the murder as they were getting ready to leave. And then his phone is hitting off of a tower near Lake Butler, Florida, just north northeast of Gainesville at the same time that it is being picked up on LPR right there at Main Street in Lake Butler, Florida. His phone is in contact with Isaiah Chance. Mr. Murphy is the biggest, heaviest one of these defendants, just like the shooter who takes the rearwood rearward position in this attack. That's Mr. Murphy when he was arrested. You will see tattoos. You see Vinnie on his neck and chest. He has a 12200 tattoo on the back of his neck.
He has >> So this was the most interesting like the way he's looking in the pictures when he was arrested with a big smile.
The way he's looking almost with a little bit of a smirk there. And then this was just diabolical when you see this when they have the video of him in the interview room.
>> The name of people from 1200 who have been murdered tattooed on his body.
And in this video you will clearly see in the evidence Mr. Da'Von Murphy taking full credit for his role in this shoot.
>> That is just after his arrest when he is left alone in an interview.
>> Just after his arrest when he's left alone interview room. Now I to say that's him taking credit for it I think is definitely argument. Um and you know this is the way the state believes the evidence is going to come out. But I do think there was some argument throughout this opening. There were some objections and he you know the the judge like this is just the way the state believes the evidence is going to come out. But I definitely think there was some leeway for argument. That is definitely argument to me that you know somebody making a gesture is taking credit for a murder but diabolical. Looks horrible.
Jury is going to hate that. I mean and and then his face right here in the courtroom like all of that looks very bad for a guy sitting here on trial you know claiming to be not guilty at this point. Right. Not definitely the worst look for him so far in my opinion, but it also because they're all being tried together. If I was a different if I was the codefendant that was the lookout, I can understand for sure why you would want to be severed and not connected to this because when all of them are connected to this and all of this is a conspiracy together, it looks really really bad when you have things like that.
>> Just to show because it was a video I wanted you to see a couple of still shots of Mr. Davon Murphy in action. You could see the muzzle flash. You can see the orange or reddish ski mask. And you can see his position shooting directly at the Charger shooting again at the Charger and a last time. And there's Mr. Gathray on the bottom following Mr. Edwards in the Charger and Mr. Jones and then Mr. Murphy returning being caught on the Tesla video.
Mhm.
>> Now, this um is a >> I mentioned this earlier about the spaces where somebody said, "Hey, Fulio, uh your foot okay cuz and again they're going to try to connect that to say like this was them admitting that they were the ones that attempted on the first time and they believe that the person that made the first attempt on Julio Fulio was the one that got the job done." Again, I thought something very interesting. You know, they talked about their theme near the end the state where he said, "We're going to take this conspiracy and pull it out of the dark and into the light." Uh but more interesting to me is he said we talked a lot about beyond a reasonable doubt in jury selection and what a reasonable doubt is and how that's you know the burden of the state but we are going to prove this case beyond all doubt. Beyond any doubt that shows confidence. I'm not sure I would do that right but it sounded like after that opening statement there is a reason to be very confident. Um and that shows a lot of it. But if I'm a juror and I'm like okay so if I have any doubt at all is it not guilty? That's kind of confusing burdens, which is why I don't like to do stuff like that. Um, maybe you say something like, "I think we can prove it beyond absolutely any possible doubt at all, but we only have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt." So, try to lower your bar. I don't care how confident you are. Lower your bar. That's like saying, "I have a free throw to make a million dollars." And they're like, "Well, we can put the rim down to five feet if you want." No, no, no. Make it 12 feet. It's like, why? If I get the same amount of money for making it on five foot rim, I'd rather just take that shot, hit it on the five foot rim, right? no reason to make your job harder, especially when you're talking about justice in a situation like this. Um, but let me know what you guys think. What are kind of your thoughts around this case overall?
Do you think it's just a sad set of circumstances? Do you think there will be a really good argument? Do you think just one of them will have a better argument than the other? Will they point the finger at each other? Is this just going to be a slam dunk? All of them get convicted because the jury's like, "Okay, gang violence makes sense.
Everybody's kind of bad here, but you know, they committed this crime." How do you think a juryy's going to think about this case? What questions do you have kind of going into this trial? And is it one you guys are going to be watching?
uh is it one you're going to have questions on? Because that's my biggest question for you that I am going to go back and check out the comments to see what you guys say, see what you guys are following on it. But I appreciate you joining me here. Hit that like button if you haven't already and subscribe if this is a case that you want me to follow so you don't miss any alerts when we bring out new videos. It's all I got.
Till next time, I'm out of here. Thanks for watching another episode of The Lawyer You Know. If you enjoyed the episode, please hit the thumbs up and share with your friends who may be interested here on YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe. You can also follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, and Tik Tok. And don't forget to check out the Lawyer You Know podcast featuring new episodes every week. And if you have a case that you want to personally talk to us about in your life, if it's a personal injury case, wrongful death, catastrophic injury, car accident, truck accident, or slip and fall case, please email us at [email protected].
And of course, all these links I just mentioned are included in the description below on this episode and every episode. So until next time, this is Peter Tos, the lawyer you know.
Related Videos
BREAKING: Judge Kathleen Issues Emergency Arrest Warrant After Trump Defies Order
Frontora
2K views•2026-05-29
8 Hidden Things About Mackenzie Shirilla Netflix's 'The Crash' Didn't Show You
MarvelousVideos
2K views•2026-05-28
MP Garnett Genuis warns Canada’s MAiD system has ‘gone too far’
WesternStandard
187 views•2026-05-28
Trump Impeachment STORM IGNITES as 29 Judges Vote for Conviction!!
DanielBriefDaily
2K views•2026-06-02
सुप्रीम कोर्ट में 5 जजों का शपथग्रहण समारोह #supremecourt #judges #oathceremony #shorts #ytshorts
Bharat24Liv
4K views•2026-06-02
THE STREISAND EFFECT AT BARBARA STREISAND’S HOUSE! - First Amendment Audit
KULTNEWS
1K views•2026-05-30
EBK Jaaybo Won’t Be Going To Trial?! | Criminal Lawyer Reacts
floridadefenseteam
404 views•2026-05-29
OFFICE HOURS: The Theft of Black Brilliance... AI and Intellectual Property (w/ Lisa E. Davis)
marclamonthillnetwork
2K views•2026-05-29











