Reginald Louis Jackson and co-defendant Roderick Martin appear in court on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. Jackson and Martin are heading to trial in May after rejecting plea deals.
Courtesy of NBC 6
Two men accused in the execution-style murders of a church minister and her grandson in Miami Gardens will soon go to trial — more than a decade after the murders.
In court on Tuesday, Reginald Louis Jackson, 40, rejected a 40-year plea deal state prosecutors offered. His co-defendant Roderick Martin, 39, wanted to plead guilty for a 25-year sentence but wasn’t able to because the offer was contingent on Jackson accepting his plea deal.
That means Jackson and Martin will finally face a jury in May. Jurors will be tasked with deciding whether the pair is guilty of the killings of 70-year-old Annette Anderson, a minister, and her grandson 20-year-old Tyrone Walker Jr.
Anderson was an ordained minister with the Jesus People Ministries Church and hosted weekly Bible study sessions. Walker, nicknamed TJ, had been in South Florida for only three months, moving from Jacksonville to attend ITT Tech.
Annette Anderson Family Photo Handout
In court, prosecutor Abbe Rifkin offered Martin another deal — if he agreed to cooperate and testify against Jackson. Martin, in orange and seated right next to Jackson, declined.
Rifkin said the state will not make any more offers and intends to seek seven life sentences, if the two are convicted. They are charged with a slew of offenses, including murder, robbery, kidnapping and burglary.
“We’re ready to go,” Rifkin said about the May 6 trial date. “I think [Jackson] thinks we’re scrambling.”
“I’ve been [with] this case for 13 years, you don’t think I know what time it is?” Jackson replied during the hearing.
Execution-style murder
In July 2013, Anderson and Walker were found bound, gagged, tortured and shot to death in Anderson’s home at 3451 NW 207th St., according to police. Their bodies appeared to have been inside the home for a few days.
Within weeks, detectives arrested Jackson, a neighbor whose fingerprints and DNA were found inside the home. Police tracked Jackson to his girlfriend’s apartment in Opa-locka. There, they found a 2001 two-door silver Acura that matched the video surveillance of a car leaving Anderson’s home.
Reginald Louis Jackson Miami-Dade Corrections
Jackson, authorities say, made two phone calls to Anderson’s home on July 13, shortly before she was killed. DNA and cellphone records tied Martin to the crime scene, according to police.
Roderick Martin Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation
Jackson and Martin were initially facing the death penalty for the murders. In 2022, a judge found Jackson intellectually disabled, which bars him from the death penalty. Prosecutors appealed the judge’s ruling, which the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed last December.
On March 30, prosecutors waived the death penalty for Martin.
In the months before the crime, Jackson had been released from prison after serving a five-year sentence for a series of burglaries. Jackson, at the time of the murders, was on probation — and Martin was out on bond awaiting trial for an unrelated charge of illegally carrying a firearm.
This story was supplemented by the Miami Herald archives
Miami Herald
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.