{"id":200177,"date":"2026-03-21T07:11:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/200177\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T07:11:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:11:27","slug":"daughter-of-ponte-vedra-double-shooting-victim-urges-harsh-punishment-for-accused-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/200177\/","title":{"rendered":"Daughter of Ponte Vedra double shooting victim urges harsh punishment for accused killer"},"content":{"rendered":"

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 The daughter of Melissa Wood, one of two people killed in a double shooting last Friday night in a Walgreens parking lot,<\/a> described her mother as loving, supportive and the center of the family.<\/p>\n

Sienna Valdez said she still struggles to accept what happened to her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfair,\u201d she said. \u201cHe had no right to take her away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valdez called her mother \u201cthe best,\u201d and said Wood always knew what to say and do and loved Valdez and her brother unconditionally. She shared a close memory of hunting for shark teeth on the beach at night with her mother, a small tradition she now treasures.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Mother of man accused of killing 2 outside Ponte Vedra Walgreens drove him to site of shooting, unredacted report shows<\/a> | \u2018Had just become a grandma\u2019: GoFundMe campaign identifies woman killed in double shooting Friday in Ponte Vedra Beach<\/a> | Attorney predicts grand jury indictment, possible life sentence after Ponte Vedra Walgreens double homicide<\/a><\/p>\n

Valdez said she spoke by phone with the man accused in the killings, identified by investigators as Christian Barrios, the night of the shooting. <\/p>\n

She described him as distraught and said she tried to calm him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just talking and saying that he was like heartbroken over my mom, and she was with someone else,\u201d she recounted. \u201cI talked him out of, you know, off the ledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valdez said she received a call the next morning she did not expect \u2014 her grandmother telling her Barrios had killed her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought maybe something had happened to him. Which wouldn\u2019t have been great either, but did not expect her to say that he killed my mom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Asked what she would say to the accused, Valdez expressed disappointment and uncertainty about his state of mind, and referenced reports she has heard about possible mental health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed…I can\u2019t say right now that I would forgive him, but I know at the end of the day, my mom would want me to.\u201d<\/p>\n

At other moments, Valdez said her anger wants the harshest punishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe angry side of me once death row. Just because if you take a life, I think you should just go. I do want it to be kind of even with my mom\u2019s life, even though nothing could ever bring her back. I want him to rot in prison for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valdez said she is holding to the memories of her mother\u2019s warmth and generosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019d want everyone to go shark tooth hunting, get your headlamps on, and get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigators arrested Christian Barrios in Nassau County. He faces multiple charges in both Nassau and St. Johns counties, including six charges in St. Johns County that prosecutors say include two counts of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

Nassau County charges listed by officials include grand theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing causing injury or damage, and reckless driving, among others.<\/p>\n

Barrios will remain in the Nassau County jail to face the Nassau charges until he is transferred back to St. Johns County to face the murder charges.<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s family has launched a GoFundMe <\/a>to help cover funeral arrangements.<\/p>\n

Our full interview with Valdez can be seen below. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 The daughter of Melissa Wood, one of two people killed in a double…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7543,116,118,117,30067,5902,36819],"class_list":["post-200177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-double-homicide","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-ponte-vedra-beach","tag-st-johns-county","tag-st-johns-county-sheriffs-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}