TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 All four men charged with the murder of Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio were found guilty by a jury on Friday.<\/p>\n
Charles Jones, known by his stage name Julio Foolio, was shot and killed in June 2024 while celebrating his 26th birthday in Tampa. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Sean Gathright, Rashad Murphy, Davion Murphy and Isaiah Chance were all found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.<\/p>\n During opening statements<\/a>, 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 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 [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/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 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 [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/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 At 1 p.m. on Monday, the penalty phase in which the four men will be sentenced will begin.<\/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 All four men charged with the murder of Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio were found guilty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6273,106857,344,80375,347,11264,28,80377,348,116,351,118,117,106856,349,113983,350,106854,346,106855,345,106853],"class_list":["post-264383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-6273","tag-6-block","tag-action-news-jax","tag-atk","tag-cbs47","tag-charles-jones","tag-florida","tag-foolio","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-kta","tag-northeast-florida","tag-six","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-spinabenz","tag-wfox","tag-whoppa","tag-wjax","tag-yungeen-ace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264383","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=264383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}