Foolio Killers: The Ambush, Suspects, and Life Sentences

The Foolio killers are five people from Jacksonville who were convicted of ambushing rapper Charles Jones, known as Julio Foolio, in a Tampa hotel parking lot on June 23, 2024. Four men — Sean Gathright, Rashad Murphy, Davion Murphy, and Isaiah Chance — were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. A fifth defendant, Alicia Andrews, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years.¹²

Who the Five Convicted Defendants Are

Prosecutors identified three of the men as the masked gunmen who stepped out of a black Chevrolet Impala and opened fire. Sean Gathright, 20, was described by his defense as unaffiliated with the gangs involved, though DNA testing linked him as a major contributor to tape found on a recovered rifle. Rashad Murphy, 32, was identified as a documented member of the 1200 gang. His brother Davion Murphy, 29, was identified as a 1200 associate and bore tattoos memorializing deceased members of that group.³¹

Isaiah Chance, 23, did not pull a trigger, according to prosecutors. They said he served as a scout who tracked Jones to the hotel in a silver Chevrolet Cruze. He was tied to the rival ATK gang, though his lawyers argued he had no gang tattoos and no formal documentation as a member. Alicia Andrews, 23, was Chance’s girlfriend at the time. She booked the Airbnb that the group used as a base in Tampa and helped track Jones as he moved between nightclubs on the night of the killing.³²

Days after the murder, a rival group released a music video titled “Foolio Dead.” Prosecutors introduced it at trial as evidence of motive, along with Instagram posts by rivals that appeared to celebrate the killing.⁵

Jones, 26, had traveled from Jacksonville to Tampa to celebrate his birthday and had been promoting the trip on Instagram. After being asked to leave an Airbnb over occupancy limits, he relocated to the Home 2 Suites on McKinley Drive near the University of South Florida. At approximately 4:40 a.m. on June 23, 2024, three armed and masked gunmen got out of a black Chevrolet Impala in the hotel parking lot and opened fire on Jones’s parked vehicles. Investigators recovered 31 nine-millimeter shell casings. Surveillance video captured Jones trying to drive away before he died at the scene. Three bystanders were wounded. Camilla Bentley was struck in the right arm, and two men, Xavier Edwards and Gino Norris, were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. All three survived.⁷³⁸

Prosecutors said the five defendants had driven from Jacksonville to Tampa the day before in two vehicles with the sole purpose of killing Jones. They “packed as if they were going on vacation,” one prosecutor told jurors, using the Airbnb as a forward operating base.³

The case was built on a dense digital record. Tesla “Sentry Mode” footage from a car parked at the hotel captured the shooters’ movements. Hotel surveillance and pole cameras tracked the Impala and the silver Chevrolet Cruze at multiple locations. Cellphone location data and text messages between the defendants documented the coordination, from the Airbnb booking to the sharing of Jones’s location to the mapped routes between nightclubs he visited that night.⁹ A Twitter Spaces argument between Jones and Chance also fed into the motive case.⁵

Andrews was tried first in Hillsborough County. Originally charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy, she testified in her own defense that she had no knowledge of a plan to kill Jones. Her lawyers argued there was no direct evidence she helped plan the murder, was present when weapons were loaded, or communicated with the group about the shooting. On October 31, 2025, jurors convicted her of the lesser charge of manslaughter. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison on May 22, 2026.¹⁰¹¹²

The penalty phase lasted a week. Defense witnesses described the defendants’ upbringings and intellectual limitations: a psychologist testified that Chance had an IQ of 71 and read at a fifth-grade level, and experts testified about head trauma and an adjustment disorder diagnosis for Davion Murphy. Gathright expressed remorse directly to the victim’s family. The jury found aggravating factors but recommended life without parole rather than death for all four men. A judge formally imposed those sentences on June 22, 2026. At the hearing, each defendant addressed the courtroom with messages aimed at younger people, including one who said, “It ain’t worth it.” Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez said the outcome was “a reminder that if you bring violent crime into Hillsborough County, we will hold you accountable.”³¹²¹⁴