TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Four men accused of orchestrating the 2024 ambush killing of Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio sat before a jury today as the state began piecing together what they say is a cold, calculated murder. <\/p>\n
The trial, which stems from the June 2024 shooting of 26-year-old Charles Jones, known professionally as Julio Foolio, opened with prosecutors painting a grim picture of a Jacksonville gang war that finally reached its breaking point outside a Tampa hotel.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Sean Gathright, Rashad Murphy, Davion Murphy, and Isaiah Chance each face charges of first-degree murder. During opening statements, the prosecution argued that the four defendants were driven by \u201ccollective evil intentions\u201d to eliminate Jones just hours after he celebrated his 26th birthday. <\/p>\n \u201cWith everyone\u2019s collective evil intentions directed into one purpose, directed into one common goal, the premeditative murder of Charles Jones,\u201d the lead prosecutor told the court. <\/p>\n The state spent several hours on Wednesday morning presenting a digital breadcrumb trail. Prosecutors allege that cell phone records place the men in Tampa at the time of the killing. Furthermore, surveillance footage from the hotel and a nearby Tesla reportedly captured the moment the rapper was gunned down in a hail of gunfire. <\/p>\n Prosecutors informed the jury that this was not the first attempt on Jones\u2019 life, citing an incident nine months prior where attackers with high-powered rifles shot up his car. <\/p>\n \u201cWe will go back in years and I\u2019m going to walk you through a gang war that has been occurring in the city of Jacksonville,\u201d the prosecution stated, \u201cand that in this case traveled here and spilled in our streets.\u201d <\/p>\n To illustrate the alleged motive, the state pointed to a music video titled \u201cFoolio Dead,\u201d released by a rival gang just days after the shooting. Prosecutors contend the defendants planned the hit at least two weeks in advance. <\/p>\n Defense attorneys for the four men struck back during their openings, arguing that the state\u2019s case needs more concrete proof. <\/p>\n Lawyers for Isaiah Chance argued that the evidence would fail to show he took any specific action to assist in a murder, even if he was in the city. <\/p>\n \u201cIt needs more than association; it needs more than just traveling to a city,\u201d the defense argued. \u201cI believe the evidence will not show an act something that Isaiah did to assist this murder while having knowledge to assist this case.\u201d <\/p>\n Similarly, the attorney for Rashad Murphy warned the jury not to be swayed by the provocative nature of the rap videos or the state\u2019s narrative of a \u201cgang war.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThose rap videos will not tell you I anticipate the evidence will show that there is not any indication that Rashad Murphy participated to kill Charles Jones or actually did so,\u201d his defense stated. <\/p>\n The trial is expected to continue through the week as the state begins calling witnesses to testify on the surveillance footage and the forensic digital evidence collected in the wake of the June 2024 shooting. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Four men accused of orchestrating the 2024 ambush killing of Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio sat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[107119,107113,107116,107118,107120,107117,23541,116,118,117,6489,34520,107112,634,107115,107121,107114,135,3395],"class_list":{"0":"post-242639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-antonio_tilley","9":"tag-charles_jones","10":"tag-daveon_murphy","11":"tag-flio","12":"tag-isaiah","13":"tag-isaiah_chance","14":"tag-jack_jessica_salinas","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","17":"tag-jacksonville-news","18":"tag-jessica_salinas","19":"tag-jones","20":"tag-julio_fo","21":"tag-local","22":"tag-rahaan_murphy","23":"tag-rashad_murphy","24":"tag-sean_garthwright","25":"tag-tampa","26":"tag-tesla"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242639","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=242639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}