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Prosecutors played a video that appears to show one of the suspects charged with Julio Foolio mocking the rapper's death while in the interrogation room.
The murder trial for the four men accused of killing the Florida rapper began in Tampa on Wednesday morning, April 22. During the opening statements, prosecutors argued that Isaiah Chance, 23, his girlfriend Alicia Andrews, 23, Sean Gathright, 20, Rashad Murphy, 32, and Davion Murphy, 29, traveled from their hometown of Jacksonville to Tampa to kill the rapper, born Charles Jones, on his birthday. At one point, a video of Murphy seemingly making shooting gestures while he was alone in an interrogation room after he was arrested.
“That’s Mr. Murphy when he was arrested,” the prosecutor told the court. “In this video, you will clearly see… Mr. Davion Murphy taking full credit for his role in the shooting. That is just after his arrest, when he is left alone in an interview room.”
Murphy was the last suspect police arrested for his alleged involvement in Jones' murder He was apprehended several months after the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshals located and arrested his brother, Rashad, who was also on the run, at an apartment complex in Jacksonville. JSO Gang and SWAT units tried to negotiate with Murphy for hours before they used tactics to force him out of the building.
The Murphy brothers and the others were charged with one count of first-degree murder (premeditated with the discharge of a firearm) and one count of conspiracy of first-degree murder (premeditated with the discharge of a firearm). Davion and Rashad Murphy were charged with first-degree murder, one count of conspiracy of first-degree murder, and three counts of first-degree attempted murder.
Alicia Andrews was tried separately last year and was found guilty of manslaughter. The four men will be tried together. If convicted, prosecutors will seek the death penalty for all four defendants.